Autobots, Assemble! Chapter 1
by MiniKoontzy
Summary: The Avengers are sent on a high-speed pursuit to catch three strange vehicles; little do they know is that they aren't the only ones going after those cars...
1. Chapter 1: Robots and Police Chases

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 1

In Midtown Manhattan, "strange" was an everyday happening. Super villains, time-traveling conquerors, even renegade Asgardians popped up in the city, wreaking havoc to the people who inhabited the Big Apple. S.H.I.E.L.D existed to help try and keep the peace, but the organization was hampered slightly by politics and governmental issues. To help better keep the peace and protect the people of, not just New York, but the entire world if need be, a "specialized" team had been created. Or, rather, created itself.

The Avengers. Earth's mightiest heroes, tackling the threats that no single hero could on their own, consisting of such personages as Tony Stark, King T'Challa, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner, better known, respectively, as Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America, and the Hulk, the Avengers are a sign of hope to many. Others, however, consider them not only as vigilantes, but possible threats.

OooooooooOoooooooooO

The Avengers were sparring with their team mates in the training rooms specially designed by Tony Stark and manned by his personal AI butler, who had been affectionately named "Jarvis" by his creator, Stark. The AI not only manned the training sessions, but effectively ran the entire mansion that they occupied and alerted them if it had detected any unusual activity on the planet, whether it be super villain attacks or just investigating something that was strange. The training sessions allowed the heroes to be ready for anything, and it also allowed them to-safely-settle friendly rivalries; Hulk and Thor were the biggest rivalry, always trying to prove that one was stronger than the other.

The AI sounded a small alarm to get the attention of every Avenger. Hawkeye and Cap stopped mid-punch to listen to what it had to say; no doubt the other stopped what they were doing as well.

"What is it, Jarvis?" the soldier asked.

"Everyone is to meet in the assembly hall immediately." Jarvis responded with his British sounding voice, but didn't inform them of any details.

"Oookay, that was a little cryptic." Hawkeye muttered to himself.

Everyone had, just as Jarvis had instructed, gathered in the assembly hall.

"Remind me-what are we doing here again?" Janet van Dyne, a.k.a Wasp, demanded.

"Dunno. Jarvis wouldn't even tell _me_ what's wrong." Tony complained.

"Sir, if I may, the only reason I did not further inform you-any of you-is because I required time to investigate the disturbance." Jarvis said.

"What kind of disturbance?" Hank Pym, a.k.a Ant-Man, asked warily.

"As you know, I am monitoring police radio frequencies to assist in locating escaped super villains. Ms. Foster also allowed me to monitor her specific frequency as well, since she is sometimes sent to assist civilians injured by said villains." The AI began. "A few minutes ago, one squad reported two purple muscle cars of unknown make going well above the speed limit for urban areas, being led by a red Aston Martin. One of their 'dash-cams' managed to capture an image of the three cars."

The holographic screen above the table flared to life, showing a rather blurry image of two dark purple muscle cars headed by a, as explained, a deep red Aston Martin with custom flame designs on the doors.

"Aside from looking 'out-of-the-ordinary', I don't see what the fuss is about. Probably a trio of street racers." Wasp said dismissively.

"Jarvis, zoom in on the front bumper of the first purple car." Black Panther requested.

"Zooming in."

A very fuzzy image of the front bumper was magnified.

"Can you clarify the image?" The Wakandan continued.

"Only slightly. The original image quality is not the best."

"What is it Black Panther?" Thor asked him.

"Patience Thunderer. You will see."

The image clarified slightly…just enough for the Avengers to see what Panther had been looking at.

A sinister, face-like logo adorned the front bumper of the car, horns on its head and its eyes set to portray anger and malice.

"Okay, creepy decals. Why can't the police handle these dimwits?" Hawkeye deadpanned.

"They have tried, sir. As I said before, these images were taken a few minutes ago. Since then, the police squadron has been incapacitated by the three vehicles. According to the radio chatter, they deployed some sort of hyper-advanced weaponry concealed under their hoods. Guns, sir." Jarvis explained.

"Anyone up for a high-risk police chase?" Stark quipped.

The cars weren't hard to spot. They were racing along at breakneck speed through Midtown, clipping corners and nearly running a few pedestrians over. The normally ridiculous traffic New York is known for had vanished to try and avoid the cars after seeing what had happened to the police unit that had given chase. Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Wasp, and Ant-Man were in the air, while Panther, Hulk, and Captain America were pursuing from the ground. The trio of cars apparently realized they were being followed again, turned around, and deployed their guns, firing rapidly to try and down their assailants. Most of the shots went wide, though a few came close enough to nearly graze Hawkeye's skycycle and also impacted a few buildings, though the damage caused was minor at best. A shot from the red Aston collided with Iron Man and his suit fritzed, the wearer temporarily losing control and falling a few dozen feet towards the ground before the suit rebooted itself.

"Jarvis what was that?!" Stark demanded.

"Unknown, sir. I will advise you to avoid the guns blasts in future, as they seem to behave like short burst EMPs." The AI cautioned.

"No kidding." Iron Man grumbled back. He opened a comm. channel to his team mates. [Avengers, keep away from those blasts. They mess with tech and make them shut down for a few seconds.]

[Copy that, Tony. We'll be careful.] Steve reassured him. [Thor, Hawkeye, Panther, slow 'em down for us.]

[Aye!]

[You got it old man.]

[Of course, Captain.]

The three selected Avengers split off and made a bee line for the car trio. Hawkeye unleased a volley of explosive arrows, throwing the cars off course and making them skid around. Thor summoned a massive bolt of lightning in front of the cars to keep them in place, and Panther threw a barrage of vibranium arrow heads to confuse the drivers further. The cars remained motionless, stunned from the triple attack, unable to draw their weapons again.

The Avengers all crowded around the cars to get a better look. The windows on each vehicle were heavily tinted and nothing could be seen within. T'Challa laid a hand on the side of one of the purple cars, but drew it back quickly as though he'd been struck.

"Pym, place a hand on the side of this vehicle. Tell me what you feel." He said.

Ant-Man leaned forward and touched the car just as Panther had done.

_Tha-dum, tha-dum, tha-dum….._A steady, drumming pulse was emanating from the car.

"What the?...That can't be right! That feels-that feels like a heartbeat!" He exclaimed.

That's when something unexpected happened.

Clanking gears and hissing hydraulics filled the ears of the gathered heroes, along with the powering up of advanced weapons. The three cars…changed into towering metal robots. The two purple cars changed into large purple robots with expressionless red visors and alien looking guns that glowed bright red, while the Aston turned into a robot just as large with blood red eyes, a deep crimson paintjob, and a cruel smirk that didn't look entirely sane. To make matters worse, one of its hands changed into a massive buzz saw that whirred to life.

"WHAT THE HECK?! Stark, are you seeing this?!" Hawkeye shouted, before scrambling backward and drawing his bow.

"Seeing, still workin' on believing." Iron Man answered in disbelief.

"Enough talk." Thor intervened. He then turned on the red robot. "HAVE AT THEE GIANT!"

The Asgardian flew right for the red robot's face, but ended up being swatted aside by the massive buzz saw as though he were a mere insect.

Hulk tried next, and was swatted aside as well, though he was able to at least get a sound punch in before being swatted. The red robot reeled from the blow, but aside from a large dent in his torso, he looked relatively unharmed.

"Uh, if those things can take out the two biggest guns on our team-"Wasp started.

"We're toast." Hawkeye finished for her.

"No we're not. They have to have some kind of weakness." Tony argued.

"I agree." Cap turned to his allies and raised his shield. "AVENGERS! ASSEMBLE!"

The battle cry acted to rally the Avengers, and every one of them charged forward, but they faltered on hearing another sound.

HOOOOOOOOOONK! HOOOONK! A bright red and blue Peterbilt semi barreled right for the two purple robots, ramming into one's ankle and knocking it of its feet and sending it crashing to the ground. Even more strangely, a tiny squadron of vehicles followed behind it and formed a defensive ring around the Avengers; a yellow and black custom styled muscle car, a sleek blue motorcycle with pink highlights, a dark green armored off-road vehicle, and a white racecar with blazing double 38's on the doors. Each vehicle was revving its engine in a rather obvious threat, as though they were daring the three robots to attack.

Thor and Hulk had recovered from their defeat and got inside the defensive circle of vehicles as well, though the Asgardian seemed confused as to how a group of cars could defend them from three giant killer robots.

"Autobots! Transform and protect the humans!" a baritone voice rumbled from the semi.

"Um did that truck just talk?" Wasp wondered.

Tony's answer to her was drowned out by a second wave of clanking gears and hissing hydraulics. In moments, the "cars" from before had turned into towering robots and each had deadly looking guns pointed at the three other robots. The semi had turned into a gargantuan red and blue robot who towered over his allies, and seemed to give off an air of authority; the black and yellow muscle car was now a black and yellow robot whose eyes flitted in every direction, summing up the opposition; the motorcycle changed into a fierce looking female robot, much smaller than her comrades; the off-road vehicle was a hulking giant of a robot, big and bulky looking, with a wrecking ball in place of a hand; and the racecar was a youngish looking white robot with playful, mischievous eyes and grin on his face. Each robot had a crest somewhere on their bodies, either on their chests or on the doors on their backs-a steady, brave face that gave off a feeling of trust and nobility. The three enemy robots appeared uneasy at the arrival of the new robots.

"More metal giants? Are they in league with the others?" Thor whispered to Cap.

"I don't think so. I think they're friendly, and I get the feeling that the red and blue one is the leader." He whispered back. "Besides, why would an enemy go out of their way to protect us?"

"A fair point." The Asgardian admitted.

"Well, well, well, look what the cyber-cat dragged in." the red robot leered. "The Autobots and a band of fleshlings."

"That's it. I officially hate that one." Stark growled.

"Knockout, leave the humans alone. This conflict only concerns Autobot and Decepticon." The red and blue robot rumbled.

"Really? If I recall, _they_ attacked _us_! So like it or not, they just got involved." The red robot, Knockout, retorted.

"Uh hello? We're right here! What did we get involved in?" Wasp shouted and shrank down, buzzing right in front of Knockout's face.

"Jan are you insane?! Get down here before he kills you!" Hank yelled up to her.

Knockout smirked, "Foolish human." and caught her between both hands with ease, peering inside to see his capture.

"JAN!" Hank shouted.

A loud _Zap!_ and a bolt of yellow energy shot out from between Knockout's fingers. He stumbled backwards, holding a hand over one of his eyes.

"Argh! My optic!" he howled. He turned to the second purple robot (its comrade was still down) and snarled, "What are you standing there idle for? Destroy her!"

Wasp stuck her tongue out and dove back down to the ground, narrowly avoiding the robot's swiping hand.

"Too slow!" she teased, and sent out another energy blast, hitting the purple robot square in the eye, disorienting him as well. The other friendly robots stood stock still, probably surprised to see a human capable of fitting in another human's hand taking on a giant robot on her own. "You guys gonna help or not?"

This shook the "Autobots" out of their stupor, and the red and blue robot and the small blue and pink female one opened fire, striking the purple robot in the chest. One final high-powered blast from the red and blue one and the purple robot fell to the ground with a thud, its red visor dimming as its systems went offline.

"Five against one, Knockout. I'd recommend leaving….unless you want that precious paintjob of yours scratched." The female robot taunted.

"Twelve if you count us in." Hawkeye quipped. "I'd be happy to put a few arrows in his chest for ya."

Knockout rolled his eyes at the archer. "Please, as if a few arrows could _possibly_-"

He was cut off as three arrows whizzed right for his chest. Each impacted with a faint _thunk_ and buried itself in his armor. What he wasn't expecting was for the arrows to discharge a powerful electric shock, sending his systems on the fritz and disorienting him yet again.

"You insolent little…!" Knockout snarled.

"Thor, electricity hurts him! Give him everything you've got!" Iron Man realized.

"Aye!" The Asgardian nodded, and launched into the air. On reaching an appropriate height, he starting swinging his hammer in large, circular motions, and storm clouds started to from above the city.

"What in the…?" the white robot had gone wide-eyed at seeing the strange spectacle. "What's he doing? _How_ is he doing that?!"

"What, you've never seen Thor summon lighting and fry a bad guy before?" Iron Man grinned at him from behind his helmet. "Speaking of which, his lightning can be a little haphazard, so Jarvis is recommending you take cover so you guys don't get accidently hit in the process. After all, metal does attract lightning."

The red and blue Autobot gave him a small smile in return. "A wise precaution." He turned to his allies. "Autobots! Find cover!"

Each robot changed back into a vehicle and sped off. The large robots went for cover in a nearby underground parking garage, while the motorcycle simply sped down into a subway entrance, her small form jumping the turnstile and vanishing below ground.

"Light 'im up goldilocks!" Hulk bellowed.

Thor's swinging motions became more rapid and the hammer began to glow and spark with electricity. One satisfied that the hammer was charged enough, the Asgardian stopping swinging it and pointed it right at Knockout.

"FOR MIDGARD!"

A massive wave of lightning shot out from the hammer and collided with the red robot, who was standing and staring, frozen with fright. Once the flash faded, the robot teetered for a bit, then fell backwards with a resounding crash. Thor flew back down to inspect his handiwork.

"Nice shot." Hawkeye complimented him.

"It was satisfying indeed." Thor answered him.

"Let's go find those 'Autobots; tell 'em it's safe to come out now." Wasp chirped.

Cap nodded. "Right. Wasp, Panther, Ant-Man, go down into the subway and get the motorcycle; the rest of us will come with me and get the others."


	2. Chapter 2: Introductions and Greetings

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 2

As told to, Wasp, Ant-Man, and Panther quickly descended into the subway entrance. Considering that a small battle had taken place, it wasn't just the streets that were empty-the subway was nearly abandoned as well, the only people visible being a sprinkling of maintenance workers on the walkways going about their jobs.

"Where'd she go? Hey! Robot…motorcycle…whatever you are….you can come out now!" Wasp shouted down the tunnel. Lights flashed on from down a sideway in answer and the blue and pink motorcycle slowed rolled out from her hiding place.

"Come on, the others are getting your friends. Let's go." Ant-Man told the motorcycle. "Do you have a name?" he asked as an afterthought.

"Call me Arcee." The motorcycle said as it rolled to the stairs that led back above ground with them.

"Oooh! That's a cool name!" Wasp complimented.

"I will refrain from asking what you are; doubtless those answers will come in time." Panther said philosophically.

OooooOoooooOooo

The other Avengers had just as easy a time in locating the other vehicles, mostly because they stood out due to their bright paintjobs, which contrasted against the other, more modestly painted cars in the garage. That, and the blue and red semi and its racecar friend were pretty hard to miss.

"You guys can come back out now, the lightning storm is over." Cap told the semi.

"Aye, I believe that this 'Knockout' will think twice before attacking the son of Odin again." Thor agreed heartily.

Hawkeye approached the racecar and poked its hood experimentally.

"BOO!" the car exclaimed. The archer yelped and jumped backward, drawing his bow out of instinct.

"Smokescreen, I do not believe startling a possible ally to be the wisest choice." The semi chided the racecar.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." The racecar, apparently named Smokescreen, apologized; though it seemed evident he was trying not to laugh.

"Oh haha I'm laughing hysterically." Hawkeye said sarcastically. "Let's go collect your friend mister joker-Jan and the others have probably found her and brought her back up to street level."

"Lead the way." The semi rumbled diplomatically.

OoooooOoooooOooooo

Hank and the others were standing outside waiting for them with the blue and pink motorcycle. A few random bystanders had appeared and had stopped to gawk at the giant red robot lying unconscious in the street with the other two purple robots. Panther was carefully crawling around on one of the purple robots, examining them and making sure they wouldn't wake up randomly, while Wasp and Ant-Man were trying to gently shoo the bystanders away for their own safety in case the robots did wake up. Panther retracted his special vibranium claws and made a paper-thin cut in Knockout's leg. He leapt back down and walked over to Ant-Man.

"Doctor Pym, you are a biochemist; what do you make of this?" The Wakandan held out the tip of one of his claws, which had a tiny droplet of glowing blue liquid on it. Hank shrank down and landed on Panther's finger.

"I honestly don't know what I'm looking at." He told him.

A low groan came from the red robot in street, halting the little examination. The purple robot that had been knocked over by the truck also began to move slightly.

"Time to go!" Wasp said. "But before I do…" She flew up and zapped Knockout in the eye one final time. He was still just coming to, so all he did was snarl and swipe at her. The bystanders gasped at the two metal titans and then quickly dispersed.

"Wasp, Panther, Ant-Man! Fall back!" Cap ordered.

Hulk noticed the purple robot and stomped over to it. With a titanic punch, the robot was offlined, no longer a threat. Knockout, however, still was. He was now fully awake and alert, but on seeing Thor nearby, his red eyes widened and he dropped back into vehicle form, speeding away in a squeal of custom rimmed tires.

"Weakling." Hulk growled.

"Verily. He brings shame to all machines with his cowardice." Thor thundered.

"If that's your way of saying he was a wimp, then yeah I agree." Stark joined in. "If one lightning blast from you was enough to scare a giant killer robot…"

Cap turned on the semi. "I think you owe us some answers, pal. Who are you and who were the guys that attacked us?"

The semi merely opened the driver's side door in answer to him. The racecar opened its door for Hawkeye, the yellow and black muscle car opened its door for Wasp and Ant-Man, and the off-road vehicle opened for Panther. Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man declined, saying they could fly, and or walk.

The soldier got in uneasily. He didn't trust machines easily ever since the Ultron incident a while back. Ultron had nearly killed him; it had nearly killed everyone after hacking into the Helicarrier and activating hundreds of missiles capable of wiping out every major city on Earth, and had injured him badly enough to have be sent to the hospital. Jarvis was the one exception, but he was an AI, not a robot, and he had never turned on the Avengers due to Stark's careful and meticulous programing.

The semi seemed to pick up on his distrustfulness. "There is no need for alarm, Captain. My Autobots will not harm you or your allies." It said, and started up its engine and took off down the street. The soldier realized they were heading for the edge of the city.

He glanced around in an attempt to find the source of the voice. He could understand a robot talking, but a car? Then again, the robot and the car were the same thing. However, there was a more obvious question to ask.

"You know me?" the soldier asked.

"In a way." The semi replied.

The truck and the other vehicles were doing a good eighty miles per hour thanks to the missing traffic. Instead of taking the road leading out of the city however, it took a street that lead for Central Park. A few pedestrians were out jogging or walking, but seeing a squadron of vehicles led by a giant red and blue semi roll up onto the grass made them run off.

Suddenly, a swirling turquoise green vortex opened up and all of the vehicles drove right for it.

"What are doing?...What is that?" he demanded, his uneasiness returning.

"It is not dangerous. It is simply our means of instant transport." The truck said.

The semi drove into the vortex…and emerged into a totally different place.

The doors opened and the semi allowed the soldier to climb out. The other vehicles followed suite. The vortex was still open and Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk emerged a few moments later, and the….whatever it was closed behind them.

"Jarvis, where are we?" Stark asked.

"Unknown sir. I am unable to use the Stark Industries satellite network to pinpoint our current location." The AI answered. "Where ever this is, the location is heavily shielded."

Hawkeye and Wasp were less nervous. The spunky little size changer was flitting around and trying to chat with anyone and everyone while the archer leaned against one of Smokescreen's feet, surveying the area and probably looking for a good vantage point. Hank and Tony were staring at the giant metal titans in fascination, their scientific minds trying to make sense of what these creatures were and how they worked. Hulk merely grunted and glanced around before following Hawkeye's example and leaned against a wall. Thor was hovering in mid-air for short period before lighting down on the floor, twirling his hammer absent-mindedly, while Panther stood idle, awaiting explanations. The Avengers soon took notice of yet another robot; an amber and white one with markings resembling those on an ambulance on his arms was scowling at them in evident displeasure.

Wasp flew right up to him. "Hiya! Who're you?" she waved.

The robot stared at her before turning to the large red and blue robot. "Optimus, more humans? Aren't the three children enough hassle as it is?"

"Oh! More people!" a voice with a foreign accent chirped. A slim Japanese teen girl bounded down a set of steps that led to a catwalk, her two pigtails bobbing as she descended. "Who are they?"

Two boys followed her down; a young tween with red glasses and spiky blonde hair, around eleven or twelve in age, and an older looking teen with black hair and dark brown eyes, who looked about sixteen or seventeen. They nearly cannoned into the girl, who had stopped dead in her tracks on seeing who the arrivals were.

"No way." She grinned. The two boys had gone wide-eyed as well but kept their cool. "NO WAY! SO AWESOME!" the girl squealed.

"Miko, seriously?" the older boy deadpanned.

Miko rolled her eyes at the boy and then whipped around to face the Smokescreen. "You have no idea who's leaning on your foot do you, Smoke?" she grinned.

Smokescreen shrugged but looked at her oddly. "Just said his name was Hawkeye, nothing else. What's the big deal?"

"Dude, 'What's the big deal'? These are the _Avengers_! The Avengers! And they're standing in the Autobot base!"

The amber and white robot was watching the exchange as though watching a tennis match. He finally managed to get a word in.

"Who are the Avengers?"

The younger boy turned to the robot. "The Autobots have been here how long and you still don't know about them?" he asked curiously.

Cap had walked over to the large red and blue robot, evidently called Optimus. His head was reeling at being surrounded by giant robots, but he liked this one. He always believed himself to be a good judge of character, and Optimus's character made him feel less overwhelmed. He finally had another leader he could relate to.

Iron Man landed with a clank on the floor and lifted his helmet's faceplate up, revealing the pilot. "You guys go first. We dealt with your red friend for you. It's only fair." He said. "So first things first: What. The heck. Are you? You've even got Jarvis and Hank stumped on that point. So spill."

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots." Optimus began.

Wasp flew right up to one of his large blue eyes and hovered there. "Whoa, you're aliens? Why aren't you on your own planet then?" she asked, flitting back and forth in the air. The eye followed her movements in amusement, but then turned grave on hearing her second question.

"Because it is no longer able to sustain life. It has been ravaged by centuries of civil war." He told her sadly.

"Why are you here, then?" Hank added in his own question.

"To protect your planet from the Decepticons."

"I assume that 'Knockout' and the two purple robots were Decepticons?" T'Challa guessed.

"Correct. They seek to destroy us and any who oppose them. Like you." The amber and white robot confirmed. "And it's 'Cybertronian', not robot."

"So we just got pulled into an interstellar civil war over one incident?" Cap groaned. "I've already been in one war; I don't intend to join another. And that last war nearly killed me, if you count being frozen for 70 years in the North Atlantic Ocean as 'nearly dying'."

The amber and white Cybertronian turned on him with astonished glance but held back his questions.

"You guys have names right? We heard a few of them; the white one is Smokescreen, the blue and pink one is Arcee, and you're Optimus." Ant-Man gestured toward each 'Bot in turn. "I think introductions are in order before we introduce ourselves."

Team Prime, as they called themselves, introduced themselves. The yellow and black Autobot was named Bumblebee, the scout, the bulky green one was Bulkhead, the heavy hitter, and the amber and white one was Ratchet, the medic. There was one other, honorary team member, Wheeljack, but he was off exploring Earth and taking down Decepticon mining operations on his own. According to Ratchet, Wheeljack didn't think of himself as a team player.

"Your turn." Miko chirped.

Tony grinned. "Well, the kids clearly know who I am, but for those who don't: I'm Iron Man."

"Hawkeye."

"Captain America, though everyone just calls me Cap. Or in Hawkeye's case it's 'old man'."

"I'm Wasp!"

"Ant-Man."

"I am King T'Challa of Wakanda, the Black Panther."

"Hulk."

"Thor, Prince of Asgard."

The last name made Ratchet turn and stare. "Wait, Thor? As in the Norse god of lightning Thor?"

Stark grinned again. "The one and only." He held back laughter as Ratchet threw his hands up and stalked out of the room. He could almost hear the medic's processor shorting out. Hawkeye however didn't hold back his laughter.

The pleasantries stopped when, out of nowhere:

"Prime! PRIME!"

A dark-skinned, middle-aged man in a business suit stormed in from what looked like an elevator. In one hand he held a folder labeled CLASSIFIED in red ink. In another he held a newspaper titled _The Daily Bugle_.

"What in blazes did you think you were doing?! Dropping your cover in a heavily populated area?! When my superiors find out about this…" The man fumed.

That's when the man noticed the new comers in the base. He dropped both the folder and the newspaper in shock and stood rigid.

"What?" was all the man was capable of saying.


	3. Chapter 3: Stowaways

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 3

Cap took the initiative, walked up the stairs to the dark-skinned man, and politely handed him the two articles back. The entire time the man never took his brown eyes off of him. Once the soldier had rejoined his team, the man turned to Optimus.

"Mind tellin' me what the Avengers are doing in the base, Prime?"

"You got a problem with us being here?" Hulk growled.

"No, but I'd like to know how you lot got here, and why the 'Bots dropped their cover. And on a particular note, some kid managed to get snapshots of you and 'Bots fighting Knockout." He held up the newspaper in anger. The headline read "Avengers vs. Giant Robots!"

"Agent Fowler, we intervened in order to protect them. Knockout no doubt would have killed them for attempting to stop him. In any event, he will not underestimate these 'Avengers' again and has most likely informed Megatron of his encounter with them." Prime argued.

"Great….so King 'Con is gonna try and come after them if he considers them enough of a threat." Miko frowned.

Fowler suddenly grinned. "Why don't you guys show the 'Bots your abilities so that _they_ can gauge how much of a threat you are before Megatron comes knocking. Think of it as…demonstration. Try not to hurt 'em too much, Avengers." He winked.

Smokescreen and Bumblebee were the first to figure out what was about to happen. Both mechs tried to make a break for it, but a volley of electrically charged arrows from Hawkeye sent Smokescreen sprawling, while a few well-placed zaps from Wasp distracted Bumblebee enough for Thor to land a heavy blow on his face with Mjonir, sending him toppling as well.

"Whoa." The older boy gasped.

"Not fair. You caught us by surprise." Smokescreen whined from down on the floor.

"That _is_ what you get when you underestimate your adversary." Panther said.

Bumblebee trilled angrily and pushed himself back up.

"Hey! I heard that!" Wasp retorted. "It wasn't a cheap shot. It's called 'being a distraction'."

"Cap, Panther, Hulk, your turn. Show 'em what you got!" Hawkeye said.

"Go after Optimus! I wanna see his reaction!" Miko cheered.

If Optimus wanted to reprimand the girl, he was stopped from doing so on seeing Cap and Panther vaulting up one leg while Hulk tried to knock the other out from under him. Ant-Man decided to join in and helped the Hulk in shoving the mech's legs out from under him after growing a few feet in size. Cap and Panther had reached his head and the two super humans held their respective weapons right in his face. The Prime's eyes widened as he felt his feet shoved out from under him, and the large Autobot fell ingloriously to the floor and joined the downed Smokescreen.

"Impressed yet, Prime?" Fowler laughed. "I'll be off now; need to handle the kid who took those pictures." The agent walked back to elevator and the doors closed behind him.

"Why didn't you go, Iron Man?" the younger boy asked.

"Because I've been trying to wirelessly upload Jarvis into that computer for the past few minutes." Stark answered him. "By the way, we never heard your name, or the name of the other young man."

"I'm Raf, and that's Jack." Raf motioned to the older boy. "Who's Jarvis?"

"An…hold on, he's in. Say hi Jarvis." Stark grinned at the large Autobot sized computer.

"Indeed." Jarvis replied coldly.

"Whoa…he's an AI?" Raf gasped.

"I am." Jarvis confirmed.

Ratchet scowled at the computer. "Get out of my console _now_ before I infect you a virus."

"….Acknowledged." The AI surrendered, and then re-uploaded itself back into the Iron Man armor.

"An Artificial Intelligence could be very useful, old friend. No need to be cross with it." Prime smiled. He'd gotten back up from the floor a few moments beforehand.

The medic's scowl disappeared, but he still didn't look happy.

"Uh not to be rude, but…can we go now? We have escaped baddies to deal with back in New York." Hawkeye interjected.

"Yeah, Pepper's probably worried. And Rhodey. But mostly Pepper." Stark added.

"Clint's right. We have a lot escaped super villains to recapture." Cap agreed.

Optimus nodded in understanding. "Very well. If you encounter any other Decepticons, alert us immediately and we will come to your aid."

"Awwwww! You can't go yet!" the three kids whined.

"Don't worry; we'll stop by if we aren't fighting super powered criminals!" Wasp reassured them.

"I'll open a groundbridge back to Manhattan for you." Ratchet announced, and the swirling vortex opened a few seconds later. The Avengers walked or flew in and disappeared inside it. Miko, who had been leaning on the railing, smirked and then made a mad dash for the still open 'bridge, following the heroes back to New York.

"Makin' a break!" Jack realized, and took off after her. Raf followed out of second nature. The two boys were so used to this that they didn't even second-guess following Miko. The only reason they were following was to keep Miko out of trouble.

The three children stepped out into Central Park behind the Avengers.

"I _so_ want one of those." Iron Man said.

"Perhaps they will supply you with the schematics if you ask nicely enough." Panther replied.

"Let's head back to the mansion and see if we can pick up any activity on the Masters. I want to know why they left so quickly last time; Zemo especially. He _never_ runs from a chance to take me out." Cap mused.

"That _was_ a little unusual." Ant-Man agreed. The heroes took off in the direction of the mansion, but the soldier remained where he was for a moment. He turned back and saw the vortex close.

And then spotted the three kids.

"Busted." Miko whispered. The three of them waved shyly at him.

"What are you three doing here?" Cap folded his arms across his chest.

"Her." Jack and Raf pointed to Miko. The Japanese girl smiled innocently at him.

The soldier sighed and pinched his nose in exasperation. He pulled out his Avengers ID card and turned it on.

"Tony, we got stowaways. I'll bring them to the mansion until we can contact the Autobots."

"Let me guess: the kids followed you, huh? I'll have Clint swing by with me on his skycycle and we'll help you take them." Tony answered back.

"Sweet! We get to hang with the Avengers!" Miko cheered.

"_Only_ until we contact the Autobots. Jarvis managed to snag the frequency they use, but it's pretty heavily encrypted; could take him a while to crack it. At a guess maybe a few hours." Tony clarified.

Hawkeye and Iron Man had diligently arrived and carted the three stowaways back to the mansion. They were allowed to roam around, but were told to stay out of the training rooms. Raf decided to follow Iron Man around, Miko followed Wasp, and Jack decided to try and follow Cap. The others were busy elsewhere in the mansion, either training or on monitor duty.

"So, what's it like being the only girl on the team?" Miko started.

Wasp was perched on the girl's shoulder with her tiny insect wings folded down. She shrugged. "It's not all bad," The little size changer giggled suddenly. "But I think Thor is a little scared of me after I mouthed off to Iron Man a while back. I was upset with him because Hank had said he was going to quit the Avengers and he wasn't going to try and stop him."

Miko grinned. "The Asgardian god of lightning is scared of _you_? Wow. You must be pretty intimidating when you're mad."

"Me, intimidating?" Wasp laughed.

OooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooo

"So you built Jarvis and all the different Iron Man armors?" Raf asked, awe-struck.

"And the Arc reactor in my chest and about a million other things." Stark continued. "But yeah, I did. The Arc reactor wasn't by choice though; it's the only thing keeping me alive." He tapped the glowing circle in his chest. "There's a ton of shrapnel very close to my heart-the reactor acts as a magnet and keeps the shrapnel from piercing my heart and killing me. If I remove it or expend all the energy in it and before it can recharge itself…"

"You'll die." Raf realized.

"But I never let that stop me from saving the lives of others. That's what the Avengers do; we save lives."

Raf nodded. "It's what the Autobots do too. They'll risk their own lives to protect this planet."

Tony grinned. "Maybe a team-up is in order at some point. And hey, when you get back, mind asking the Doc for the schematics for that 'groundbridge' thing? I want to try and build one myself."

"I'll see, but no promises. He's…tightly wound. And a bit of a control freak." Raf smiled.

OoooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooo

"Cap? You okay? You've been silent ever since you left the silo. Something wrong?" Jack wondered. The two of them were walking through the hallways of the mansion.

The soldier glanced back at him. "It's…not something I like talking about. Just…remembering."

"Remembering what?" The teen inquired curiously.

"My old team. Those Autobots remind me of them a lot. It brings back…memories I'd rather forget."

"Oh." Jack fell into an awkward silence as they continued walking. He remembered some of the stories his mom had told him of Captain America, his exploits against HYDRA and the Red Skull, how he'd taken down every HYDRA goon and base he found, assisted by his young partner, Bucky, and the Howling Commandoes.

Oh. Bucky. That's what he was remembering.

"It wasn't your fault, you know."

Cap glanced back at him again. "Wasn't it?" He said mournfully. "He sacrificed himself to save me, but that doesn't make it any better. It doesn't make the pain go away."

Jack caught up with him and planted himself in front of the soldier. "Look, I'm not Optimus, but if you want to talk to someone about what happened, talk to _him_. He'll understand, better than you think. The pain, the loss, it won't go away, but…maybe he can help lessen it."

"You really think he can help?" he sounded wistful, and a little skeptical.

Jack shook his head. "No, I don't _think_ he can. I _know_ he can."

OooooooOooooooooOooooooooooooooooO

"How much longer are we supposed to wait Zemo?!" a gruff voice with an Australian accent growled.

"Patience, Abomination." Another voice with a thick, German accent purred. "All will be revealed soon."

A green portal, similar to a groundbridge in appearance, but a more sickly shade of green, opened into the dark room the Masters were waiting in. Two people walked through it; Amora the Enchantress, an Asgardian Sorceress, and her faithful, burly, follower, Skurge the Executioner. In her hand the Enchantress held a small leather bag. She then reached in and pulled out small, white stone with a single, odd symbol on it.

"Ah, the Norn Stones you spoke of." Zemo said, taking the one Amora had in her hand.

"Where's Grey Gargoyle?" a man with a suit that glowed with red and yellow light demanded.

"The battle was hard fought…He did not make it." Amora spoke in false sympathy, which went unnoticed by the Masters.

Suddenly the large monitor that Zola used flared to life, showing a grainy, purposely distorted facial silhouette.

"Who are you? How did you get into my network?" Zola snarled.

"Oh it was rather simple. I am speaking with the so called 'Masters of Evil', correct?"

"What's it to you?" Abomination growled.

"You desire to destroy the Avengers, no? I have a….proposition for you." The voice said. "That is, if you are interested."

The eyes in Zemo's mask narrowed. "I'm listening."

**Author's Note: Can you guess who the creepy voice is? :D Dun dun duuuuun! Hint: It's not who you think it is. :3**


	4. Chapter 4: Haunting Memories

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 4

"Sir, I have cracked the encryption on the communication frequency that the Autobots use. Shall I contact them?" Jarvis asked politely from a speaker on the wall nearby.

"Ring 'em up, Jarvis. And tell the others to bring the kids with them."

"Right away, sir." The AI disconnected and transferred to complete its task.

"Sorry about following you here, but Miko…" Raf attempted to apologize.

"Nah, don't worry about it. We're just lucky the mansion didn't get attacked while you were here." Tony brushed the tween's concern aside.

"This place has been attacked?" Raf's eyes widened.

"Loads of times, but we always end up kicking the intruders out eventually, though sometimes that's harder than it seems. Like that time with Ultron. That was a real pain because he just kept uploading himself into new bodies that he'd been building, or uploading himself into my armors. Little punk. No one takes my armors with my say-so." Tony frowned in remembrance, but then switched to a grin. "Let's go and round up your friends and get you back home."

The boy nodded. "Right."

Rounding up the other two kids was easier than expected. Convincing them to leave was just as easy, all except for Miko; the girl had run off to try and hide, but that plan utterly backfired on her since Jarvis monitored every inch of the mansion.

"Now that we're all here, let's call your pals and get you back." Wasp smiled.

"Sir, Ratchet is on the line." Jarvis informed. "I will patch it into your ID cards."

[The children are with you?]

"They're fine Doc. We kept 'em all nice and safe for ya." Hawkeye said.

An exasperated but relieved sigh came from the medic. [I swear that girl is a magnet for trouble. She never listens. Is there anywhere I can open a groundbridge without attracting attention?]

"Right where we are now works. We're inside; no one will notice aside from us." Ant-Man told him.

[Alright. I'm locking onto the signals your communicators are emitting.]

The familiar green vortex opened in the lounge of the mansion and three kids ran in. Jack stopped just before entering, raising an eyebrow at the soldier in a silent question.

Cap turned and quickly and quietly told Iron Man what Jack had told him.

"Hey, if you think it'll help, go for it." Iron Man reassured him.

The black-haired teen had already vanished into the groundbridge with his companions, and the soldier followed him in moments later, emerging into the Autobot base behind him.

"Jack!" Arcee rushed forward and snatched the boy. "Are you okay?"

The teen rolled his eyes. "I'm fine Arcee. But he isn't." he motioned to the lone Avenger on the floor. "Where's Optimus?"

"I am here." The large red and blue mech walked in from one of the silo's many corridors. "Is something wrong?"

"Kind of. He wants to talk to you." Jack answered, eyeing Cap.

Optimus eyed the lone Avenger on the floor with a look of understanding and shifted down into his vehicle form, opening the cabin door for him and allowing the superhuman to climb in. With a mighty roar, the engine started up and the semi took off down the silo's tunnel entrance and out into the Nevada desert.

For a while, the truck remained silent, letting the human gather his thoughts. He noticed that the human had a haunted look in his blue eyes.

"Something is troubling you." It wasn't a question, it was worded as a statement of fact.

Cap sighed and then glanced out the window. "Have you ever lost someone close to you and blamed yourself for their death?"

"I have. Many times. Why?"

"Because the person I lost was my friend and partner, Bucky."

"Tell me what happened."

With a shaky breath the soldier closed his eyes and the let the memory come back in full force.

_ Lightning flashed outside, highlighting the gravestones in the cemetery below and the large castle beyond it. The Howling Commandoes were hunched behind the stones and firing at the HYDRA soldiers attempting to stop them. Most were taken out easily, but one goon up on the ramparts activated an old fashioned machine gun, destroying some of the more fragile headstones._

_ "Howlett, I need recon!" a dark-skinned man hollered from behind his cover._

_ "I'm wokin' on it, bub!" Howlett growled back._

_ There was a sudden silence. The machine gun had jammed itself and the operator banged on it to try and get it working again. In a flash, the turret had been sliced in two by a familiar red, white, and blue shield with a large, gleaming white star in the center._

_ "Thanks, Cap!" another, younger man shouted._

_ "Don't mention it Monelli!" Cap shouted back._

_ "Let's move Commandoes!" the dark-skinned man ordered. The squadron moved, along with Cap, forward to the large castle in the distance, following the spiraling path up. The only problem was that there was a large gap and the only way across was the drawbridge, which was tipped up and could only be operated from the inside._

_ Another group of HYDRA soldiers blocked their path as well, guns drawn. One of them flung a grenade toward the Commandoes, which landed a mere foot or so away from them. On an instinct, the super soldier flung himself forward, shield raised in defense. The grenade went off, creating a cloud of smoke and debris. The explosion itself had knocked him off his feet, but when he staggered back up, he saw a prone, dark-skinned figure on the ground._

_ "JACK!" He shouted. _

_One HYDRA soldier had strutted forward and knocked Cap on the side of the head with his gun. Dumb move on his part, and he was flung off into the ravine below. Another HYDRA goon was standing in the middle of the walkway with his gun. With a creaking groan, the drawbridge lowered, flattening the goon in an instant. _

_ Cap stared at the drawbridge in shock for a few seconds, and then turned to see who had lowered it._

_ A young man, around sixteen, stood on the lowered drawbridge with his hands on his hips._

_ 'Ah, you're late." The boy scolded playfully._

_ The soldier allowed himself a smile and soft chuckle. "Any trouble inside, Bucky?"_

_ "There are HYDRA soldiers everywhere. I couldn't gain access to the lower levels without raising the alarm, but I know the way!" Bucky said proudly._

_ Jack turned out to be unharmed and the man sat up; a little scuffed but otherwise fine. The other Commandoes would see to him and secure the outside of the castle._

_ "Not a problem. The stealth portion of this mission is officially over." Cap assured him._

_ The two sprinted across the bridge and stopped in front of the large double doors that lead inside._

_ "I'll knock." Bucky smirked, and tossed a bomb-like device which stuck to the door as though it had been glued there. It beeped a few times and then detonated, loosening the doors and detaching them from their hinges, sending them falling to the ground._

_ THUD. THUD. THUD._

_ "Must be the welcoming committee." Bucky pounded a fist into his hand. "I've got this covered."_

_ Whatever he was expecting to come out didn't come. Instead, a hulking brute of a creature with one eye in its head and wooden hammer in place of a hand thudded forward, growling._

_ Bucky laughed nervously. "Y-you know what Cap? I changed my mind. You get this one!"_

_ The monster brought the hammer with a crash, the two fighters forced to jump out of the way._

_ "Okay, we've seen some weird stuff in this war, but what is that?!" the teen cried._

_ "I don't know. One of Zola's experiments maybe. Whatever it is, it's angry!" Cap replied. The monster attacked again, attempting to send the soldier flying into a nearby wall, but the shield absorbed the brunt of the blow and only sent him skidding back a few feet. Bucky had taken the high ground and jumped onto the creatures, covering its eye and blinding it._

_ "Back off, ugly!" The boy shouted. The monster snorted and tried to find him, finally succeeding and grabbing him, holding him in an iron grip. _

_ "CAP! A little help?!"_

_ With a grunt of effort, the shield was sent flying again, smacking the monster in the side of the head and forcing it let go of Bucky, who nimbly dropped to the floor._

_ That's when the soldier realized; this thing was heavy and strong, why not take advantage of that and use it against it?_

_ He'd moved to stand right in front of one of the pegs that held the drawbridge in place._

_ "You want me, monster? I'm right here." He taunted. The brute charged furiously at him, raised the hammer….a hit the peg so hard that the bridge shattered beneath it, sending the brute tumbling down into the chasm. Cap jumped and grabbed onto the chains, swinging back to Bucky._

_ "Let's keep moving."_

_ "Yeah, right, sure. No use dwelling on the big monster than almost ate us." Bucky joked dryly._

_ The interior of the castle was…disturbing to say the least. It looked like some kind of grotesque lab, tubes and vials connecting with other tubes and vials, strange liquids and gasses flowing through them._

_ "Okay this is creeping me out." Bucky admitted. "HYDRA's been working on this stuff for years. Anything in here could mean big trouble for the Allies."_

_ "That's why we're here, Bucky. No matter what, we're taking down the Skull once and for all."_

_ They continued down into the lower levels. Opening a door, they found themselves on a walkway above a large circular chamber. Numerous containment chambers dotted the room, each contained strange creatures inside of them; of them looked to be holding a group of…were those pixies? That wasn't what Cap was interested in however. What he was focusing on was a man in a black trench coat standing amongst a large group of HYDRA soldiers. What made the man unusual and all the more frightening was that his face was a deep, blood red, the skin pulled taught over his face._

_ "The Skull." He whispered._

_ "You may come out now, Captain. I know you are here." The Skull half-sneered, half-purred at them from below. HYDRA soldiers swarmed out of the door they had entered by, raising their pistols._

_ Ever the joker, Bucky quipped:_

_ "How do you always get me caught?"_

_ The two took up defensive stances, one raising a shield, the other raising his fists._

_ "Oh please Captain." The Skull leered. "Even if you were to survive, your partner would not."_

_ With a derisive sigh the two fighters surrendered and allowed themselves to be led down into the main chamber below._

_ Most of the monsters in the containers ignored them, aside from the pixies and a large wolf monster with razor teeth and claws that growled savagely at them and bared its fangs._

_ "Still doing Zemo's dirty work, Skull?" Cap scowled._

_ The Skull gave a malicious chuckle. "No, no. I have ceased looking for the relics of this world. Today, I take the power of another one." He gestured to the containers. "Ancient Norse mythology told of a realm of supernatural and powerful beings…And all myths have some base in truth. This cave was the location of one of the gateways to that realm. The Norse called it 'Bifrost', the Rainbow Bridge. Picture, an army of mythological beasts unleashed upon the battlefield. The Allies won't even comprehend the forces that are destroying them." He stroked the container the wolf was in, which made it growl even more._

_ "Looks like your doggy would rather chew on you than us, Skull." Bucky taunted._

_ This didn't shake the Skull at all. He pulled out a device that looked like a remote control. "We have ways of….'guiding' their choices." He pressed the button and the wolf shrank back and whimpered, the collar around its neck glowing._

_ "What have you done?" Cap snarled._

_ The psychopath laughed. "What have _I _done? I have won this war, Captain." He turned to one of his soldiers. "Open the portal!" He barked. The goon yanked down on a large lever and electricity arced across the room, speeding along wires to power up the device. Light burst out from a large circle on the floor, flooding the chamber with bright white light._

_ "Now?" Bucky whispered._

_ "Not yet."_

_ That's when the power failed. Red emergency light replaced the white light from the portal as it closed._

_ "NOW!"_

_ The two of them wheeled on their captors and the super soldier yanked his shield back from the goon holding it, smacking it across his face for good measure. The other goons in the room opened fire, but were quickly dispatched by the much smaller and far more agile Bucky. Understanding the teen could handle himself, Cap charged the Red Skull, tackling him to ground. He raised his shield to deliver the final blow, but the emergency lighting cut out again, distracting him, before the lighting righted itself._

_ Growls, snorts, and grunts filled the room as the captured monsters escaped their glass prisons and the control collars shorted out. The trio of HYDRA goons that corned Bucky backed off in fear on realizing the monsters were loose._

_ The wolf leapt down and tackled one of the goons, killing him with a swift bite. The other creatures proceeded to wreak havoc as well, attacking the two partners along with their former captors. The Skull took the opportunity to flee, running up a flight of stairs with a stream of German curses._

_ "This is not over!" He shouted, and fled from the chamber post-haste._

_ "Cap he's getting away!" Bucky yelled._

_ "I know, but we have to deal with these things! They can't be allowed outside!" Cap answered before shield-slamming one of said monsters, felling it from the sheer force of the impact. He noticed a large container with a symbol for "Flammable" on the front._

_ "How are we supposed to stop them?!"_

_ "I have an idea, but we need to reopen the portal! Think you can handle that, Bucky?" _

_ "You got it, Cap!" the teen made a bee line for the lever and yanked down, turning the portal back on._

_ Cap used his shield to slice through the hose that fed the container and then struck the floor with it, generating sparks and igniting the fluid. He'd created a makeshift flamethrower; the monsters wouldn't dare try and get near him now. He pointed it at the monsters that had surrounded him._

_ "Time to go home." He said._

_ The monsters took the hint and dove into the portal, vanishing._

_ "Let's get the Skull! Come on!" He shouted to his partner._

_ "Right behind ya!"_

_ They followed the stairs the Skull had taken. It lead up to one of the castle's many towers. The Skull was scaling a ladder; the tower wasn't a tower, it was rocket._

_ "Bucky, stay here, help the Commandoes secure the fortress." Cap ordered. He made a mad dash for the ladder, latched on, and started climbing. The rocket took off a moment later, blasting into the sky and forcing the soldier to hang on for dear life._

_ "I got your back, Cap!" Bucky shouted over the roar of the thrusters._

_ "Bucky! I told you-" Cap argued, horrified that he'd followed._

_ "Yeah I know, but we're partners right?"_

_ He smiled at the teen's loyalty to him. "Let's finish this!"_

_ The two of them reached the cockpit and smashed through the glass. Cap grabbed the Skull by his neck._

_ "It's over, Skull!" He growled._

_ The Skull began to laugh-a horrible, spine-tingling laugh. "For once we agree!" He reached over and pushed a button, revealing a timer that connected to a bomb. "Goodbye, Captain America!" The seat ejected out of the cockpit, leaving the two fighters alone with a ticking time bomb. 30. 29. 28…._

_ Cap growled in frustration. "There's not enough time! Bucky, jump for it!"_

_ "I can't! Cap!" The teen's foot had gotten caught in a twisted ladder rung. The super soldier rushed down to try and free it._

_ "I'm sorry."_

_ "Stow that talk. We'll make it._

_ Bucky shook his head, "No. I mean I'm sorry, but the world needs Captain America more than Bucky." And then with a swift kick of his free foot, knocked the soldier off balance and forced him to let go, free-falling into the ocean below. The teen offered a swift salute as he remained on board with the bomb._

_ "NO! NO!" he understood too late what his friend had done. "BUCKY!_

_ BOOOOOOOM! _

_The rocket exploded in a fiery display of death, the shockwave from the blast ramming into the falling Cap with the force of a two ton oil tanker, knocking him unconscious. He never felt the impact of the freezing waters or the ice that quickly formed around him._

The soldier ended the narrative and pressed his forehead against the cool glass, shuddering, a single tear slipping down his cheek. The truck, during the narrative, had pulled off the road and parked itself in the middle of the desert.

"I don't think I'll ever get that image out of my head. Ever." He said.

"So your friend sacrificed himself to save you." The semi spoke.

"He was a _kid_, Optimus. Barely older than Jack or Miko." Cap hissed through clenched teeth. He shook his head. "Why did it have to be him?" He asked no one in particular.

"It was not your fault, Captain."

"It was."

"Not directly. Your friend followed you of his own free will, not because you told him to."

"Indirectly I know, but that makes it worse." He shook his head again. "It should've been me."

"No." The semi's tone became stern. "Your friend died saving you, do not make his sacrifice in vain. And you did survive, though most likely not in the way he suspected you would." The seatbelt tugged at him gently; the closest thing a vehicle could give to a hug. "Though I am curious. How did you survive for so long in the ice? Temperatures that low should have killed you."

"Probably the super soldier serum in my blood. I'm genetically altered because of it; for a human, I'm at peak performance. I can survive things that would kill a normal person."

"The temperature still should have ended you, regardless of the serum?"

The soldier managed a weak smile. "The way Tony explained it, I survived because I was comatose when the ice formed. Essentially acted like cryostasis he said; the ice actually saved me instead of killing me."

"That is why you did not age for 70 years." Optimus realized. "You were, pardon the pun, frozen in time."

"Yeah. That's why Hawkeye calls me 'old man'. If you count the time I was in the ice, I'd technically be over 90 years old."

"I take it that Hawkeye enjoys teasing you on that point?" Optimus asked in amusement.

He shrugged. "This is Hawkeye we're talking about. He teases anybody and everybody he can, even Thor and Hulk, which is a bit of a personal safety hazard, because both of them could pound him to a pulp if they wanted to."

His ID card beeped a few times; someone was trying to contact him. With the way the arrows on the bottom were flashing, it was important. The semi took the incentive.

"Ratchet, prepare a groundbridge to New York."

"Wait, before I head back, what did you mean "Many times"?

"You are an intelligent human. You tell me."

The soldier thought back to the encounter with the Autobots in their base. The way they acted around each other, looking out for one another, watching each other's backs, like….

"They're not just soldiers under your command are they? You've been around your team for so long they've become more like a family than a military group. When you lose an Autobot, you lose a family member."

The truck rumbled in agreement. "Very good. And you and the other Avengers no doubt feel the same way, even Hawkeye, though I assume he would be loath to admit it himself. Now, off you go."

A groundbridge opened in front of the semi and the door swung open, letting the Captain out and allowing him to return to his own team. On the event horizon, he hesitated and turned back to the semi.

"Optimus?"

The truck inched forward.

"Thanks. For listening." Cap said, and then walked through the vortex back into the mansion.


	5. Chapter 5: This Means War

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 5

"So? How'd it go? What'd he say?" Wasp asked the returning super soldier.

He cast an annoyed yet amused look at Iron Man. "Can you never keep a secret, Tony?"

Tony held his hands up in mock surrender. "Don't look at me! Blame Hulk and Hawkeye! They made me!"

"Hey!" they protested. "Snitch!"

"So what's wrong? Why'd you call me back? Super villains?" Cap asked.

Tony grinned. "It's not what's _wrong_, it's what's _right_. Panther and I think we found a way to get Thor back to Asgard."

"How?"

"Come down to the assembly hall and we'll show you. Everyone."

"Prepare to be amazed!" Stark joked.

No one reacted.

"Right, so as you probably all know, T'Challa and I have been working on a way to Thor back into Asgard. We think we've got it."

A hologram of an odd looking device was projected over the table.

"Tah-dah!" He finished.

Thor was confused. "I do not understand how this…machine can pierce the veil between Midgard and the other realms."

"What we need is a weak spot, somewhere where the two planes overlap each other." Tony clarified. Two 3D panels appeared on the hologram and the device was put between the two. The two panels constricted and a funnel projected an apple passing through the device from one panel onto another. "Go in here, come out in Asgard."

"Truly my friends, I am impressed." Thor complimented.

"Not to rain on your parade Tony, but I saw a device just like that do the same thing back in my day. And it worked too." Cap said.

Tony stared at him. "Where?!" He demanded.

"Norway. In an old castle that HYDRA was using as a base."

"Hang on. I got satellite imagery coming in on that castle."

A topside view of the castle came up on the holographic display. The area inside it glowed red with high amounts of energy.

"Jarvis, trace the energy coming from that location." Panther requested.

The view zoomed out and showed two yellow lines intersecting each other, right where the castle was.

"This spot. This is what I was talking about. This is where two planes are overlapping." Tony said. "Like…dimensional fault lines."

"Fancy!" Wasp commented.

"So what're we looking at?" Hawkeye wondered.

"Ley Lines." Panther said. "Veins of magic that run through our world connecting it to others. Or as Iron Man would say 'Paths of other dimensional energy that reveal weak spots between the dimensions'. In this case, there are eight, not counting Earth."

"One for each realm." Thor realized. "It is said that the nine realms are connected by Ygdrasil, the Tree of Life."

"Big tree." Hulk grumbled.

"Call it whatever you want," Tony butted back in. "_This_ is how we're gonna get you home, Thor."

"Warning: Dimensional energy flares in progress." Jarvis interrupted.

Tony jumped into action, keying in and investigating each weak spot. "Something's affecting the energy at each of the locations. Except one that's in an active volcano."

The Asgradian frowned and stormed for the exit without a word.

"Thor wait!" Cap warned.

"Nay! If the threat we face is Asgardian I will not allow it to Midgard in jeopardy again." Thor growled.

Tony turned to the soldier. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Call the 'Bots?" Tony guessed.

"Yep. We're going to need all the help we can get. And their groundbridge can help us get to the locations way faster than anything we've got."

"Jarvis, you get that? Call up the Autobots, tell 'em we could use a hand. Tell them to send a bridge thing to their place so we can explain what they might be up against. Use the signal from the ID cards to give them the coordinates so they can find us."

"Right away, sir." The AI quickly put out the distress call along with the coordinates.

The vortex opened up in a flash and the Avengers swarmed in.

"What's the problem? Our scanners are picking up unusual energy flares all across the planet." The amber and white medic demanded. "If this is Unicron all over again….."

The assembled super humans quickly explained what they were and they needed some help in investigating.

"Dimensional energy flares? You mean this is an Asgardian problem?" Raf asked.

"We think so." Wasp agreed. "Wait, did you say Unicorn? What's a unicorn have to do with this?!"

The kids snickered but fell silent at the death glare Ratchet was giving them. Bumblebee buzzed and trilled for a few minutes.

"Hold on, you're saying there's a GIANT Cybertronian inside our planet?! And it's a bad one?!" She wheeled on Thor and Panther, the resident magic experts. "How did you two not know about this?! How did _we_ not know about this?!

"Quite, because that event caused worldwide weather disturbances and anomalies." Ratchet huffed.

Panther interspersed a question. "How long ago was this?"

"A few of your Earth months."

Hawkeye caught on. "I think I know what T'Challa's getting at. At around that same time frame, we were dealing with a crazy Dark Elf named Malekith who pretty much tried to freeze New York and surrounding areas by using a magic box. The 'Casket of Ancient Winters', right?"

"Correct." Thor confirmed. "We assumed that the strange weather, most of it, was caused by the Casket, so we did not search for another reason."

"But turns out the giant 'Con/god/whatever guy was messing with the weather as well and indirectly helping Malekith." Wasp finished. "Talk about a crazy coincidence."

"Hmm, I think you mean perfect timing. Or bad timing, whichever way you choose to look at it." Cap mused.

"Back to the main topic: Why do you need our help?" Arcee asked.

"Your groundbridge can help us get to the energy fluctuations way faster than our Quinjets. Mind letting us borrow it for a bit?" Tony smiled.

"I do not see why not. The Decepticons have gone quiet for the moment so, yes you may use it." Optimus agrred.

"Sweet!" He cheered and flew up to the Prime's face. "Hey, on a side note, mind letting me see the schematics for it? I'd love to reverse engineer the thing."

"Tony, leave him be. Besides, I think you should be asking Ratchet, not him." Cap tried to calm the overly excited inventor down.

"Oh, right."

"Since I built it, I will put one condition on you using it: We're coming with you." Ratchet said

"Guess that means I'm on groundbridge control?" Raf guessed. "And don't worry, I'll make sure Miko stays put. I'll close it on this end as soon as you guys go through."

"So if you guys are coming, we need to split into teams. Seeing as there six of you and eight of us, one of our team will have to buddy up." Hawkeye realized. "I vote for Jan and Hank, they're both size changers and they always work together."

"Who put you in charge, Clint?" Hank deadpanned.

"Just saying."

"I believe that a program of 'one Autobot, one Avenger' will work, aside from the exception of Wasp and Ant-Man, who will 'buddy-up' as you put it." Panther played the voice of diplomacy.

"Dibs on Hawkeye!" Smokescreen voted.

The archer shrugged. "Ah, why not. But if you spook me again I swear I will deflate your tires. And shove an electrified arrow into your eye." He warned.

"Play nice you two." Cap scolded.

"I will accompany Arcee." Panther decided. "If you have no objection to that?" He asked politely.

"Not in the least." She answered.

"Thor? Who do you want to go with?"

"My lightning is far too dangerous for me to ally myself with a machine. I will go alone." Thor said.

"Jan and I will go with Bumblebee, seeing as she can somehow understand his beeping when the rest of us can't." Hank decided. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Bulkhead and the Hulk will team up?"

"You bet." The two green heavy hitters agreed.

"I'll go with Optimus. Fellow leader and all." The soldier spoke.

"Guess that leaves you and me, Doc!" Tony grinned cheerfully.

The medic groaned and shook his head. "Oh joy."

OoooooooOoooooooOoooooooooooooo

Hawkeye and Smokescreen were the first to depart. On arrival they found themselves in a dense jungle.

"Yeah, don't think you can drive through this, kid. You're gonna have to walk." The archer realized.

"How far is the disturbance?"

"Don't know." He held the ID card up, activating the scanner. "Jarvis says about 3 miles….thataway." He pointed toward the thickest part of the jungle. "Race ya!"

"Bring it, tiny!"

I wasn't long before the two came under fire. Of the chemical sort. A shot of acid streaked past and hit a tree, barely missing them.

"Figured we weren't alone." Hawkeye grumbled. "Stay down kid. That acid can melt through anything. Let's not stay still long enough to see if it can melt through you."

"Got it." The white mech fired off a single warning shot into the trees. This startled the mystery shooter enough to earn a startled curse.

"Found ya." They grinned.

Another shot of acid whizzed past, melting a nearby branch into a puddle of goo. Hawkeye flew into action, leaping from branch to branch and firing arrows to try and hit the assailant, who was hiding behind a large tree trunk.

"Paste-pot Pete?" He guessed, firing three more arrows.

Another acid shot disintegrated them.

"No, wait. You're the Hypno Hustler, am I right?"

"How can you not remember who I am?! You punched me in the face!" Chemistro shouted in fury.

"That doesn't really narrow it down pal. Speaking of pals…"

THUD. THUD. THUD.

Chemistro dared to look up.

"Hey there!" Smokescreen smiled.

"GAH!" He fired another acid shot and tried to run. He was easily plucked off the ground by one of the mech's large hands.

"Better not to struggle, Chemistro!" Hawkeye chimed. "Take his shooter. We get rid of that and he won't be much of a threat."

"LET GO OF ME, ROBOT!" Chemistro screamed. He managed to pull his shooter out and fire off one acid burst, but with a deft move of the mech's free hand, it was wrenched away from him, the shot going wide and hitting yet another tree.

CRUNCH. The shooter crumpled like tin foil and was tossed aside by Smokescreen.

"So. What do we do with him now?" He asked.

"Forgetting someone?" A new, suave sounding voice purred.

OooooooooooooooOooooooooooo

Bumblebee buzzed in worry.

"Oh, relax. It's not cold enough to hurt you." Wasp chirped. The anomaly they'd been sent to was in an area coated in snow and ice.

"Jan's right. I think it has to be well below freezing to do any damage to a Cybertronian's inner workings. Your race is very robust from all I've seen." Ant-Man agreed. "You have nothing to worry about." He held up the ID card, checking to see where the anomaly was. "Down there." He pointed down a large icy canyon. Well, large to a three inch tall human. Not very large to giant sentient alien machine.

Wasp flew down first. Nothing seemed out of place except…

"Guys I think I've got something!" She spoke into her ID card. "It's some kind of glowy, magic-looking rock. I'm gonna go check it out. Hang on."

She flew forward and tried to reach for it, but the sound of something heavy and very large dropping in made her flinch back and give a small cry of alarm.

"If you've got any last words for you friends, now's the time." Abomination growled.

"Help." Wasp whimpered as Abomination stomped forward.

A loud buzz met her ears and the yellow and black Autobot scout dropped in, blocking Abomination's path, guns drawn and ready to fire.

"Jan, move! Let us handle him!" Hank ordered.

"No argument there." She quickly flew back up the canyon rim. "Be careful, guys!"

The scout bweeped a warning.

"Hank! He says move! Let him deal with the Mr. Ugly!"

Ant-Man glanced up. "You sure you can handle him? Even the Hulk has trouble with this guy sometimes."

Bumblebee trilled and gave him a thumbs-up, then motioned for him to move. The pacifist size-changer moved away without another word.

The scout buzzed angrily, his optics whirring and focusing on the scaly brute at his feet.

"Alright, robot. Let's do this." Abomination growled.

OoooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooooo

Ratchet and Iron Man were 'bridged into a large cavern. Bats squeaked and flew past, flying out to feed as the sun set outside. The medic had had to come in the long way since he couldn't fly in, using a side tunnel that led back to the main cavern.

He brushed aside a low hanging moss clump. "What exactly are we even looking for down here?"

"Wasp said it was a glowy rock thing. Shouldn't be too hard to spot." Iron Man informed his companion.

"Magical energy source detected. Warning: pulse in progress." Jarvis updated.

"Stay back. We don't know what that _thing_ can do." The medic warned. Iron Man flew closer, oblivious to the warning.

ZING! BANG! Iron Man was sent flying by an invisible force. He managed to pull himself back to his feet and spotted what, no _who_, had attacked him. A man in a glowing yellow and orange body suit stood up on a ledge, amber eyes glowing in hate.

"Laser." He hissed.

"A super villain?" Ratchet guessed.

"That's LIVING Laser, Iron Man. Living. As in something you're not going to be in about five seconds." He sneered. "You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this. And you can tell your giant toy robot to screw off."

Ratchet's optics narrowed. "_Toy robot_?! That does it!" His hands changed into large surgical blades and he charged Laser, slashing at him in pure rage. The villain dissolved into particles and slammed the medic in the chest.

Ratchet hardly flinched. "Do you really wish to fight a being three times your size and who is impervious to your futile attempts to damage?"

Laser's eyes widened. "What? Noting can resist that! Nothing!" He screeched.

"You are made of living photons, correct? Metal reflects light, it's a well-known fact." The medic scowled at him. "And seeing as I am made of _living_ metal, your attacks cannot harm me."

"You tell him, Doc!" Tony cheered.

Laser rounded on the Avenger. "I may not be able to hurt him, but I _can_ hurt _you_."

OoooooooooOooooooooooooo

The two leaders were sent to a gloomy, desolate, place. Fog hung low to the ground. Gravestones could be seen through the mist. On a small spike of stone, a glowing, round rock hovered in the air.

"This is way too easy. This has to be a trap." The soldier muttered.

"Agreed. Approach with extreme caution." Optimus advised. His blasters were drawn and his blue optics were flicking around, trying to detect even the slightest movement.

Cap approached the rock, wary that he could be ambushed very easily. A noise drew his attention.

"CAPTAIN!"

Two missiles roared in. He raised his shield in defense, and the missiles impacted harmlessly against it, the shield absorbing the brunt of the impact. A bulky form emerged from the mist. The Crimson Dynamo, another one of Tony's enemies. What he didn't except was for another, even larger and more terrifying form to emerge as well.

A large, gun metal grey Cybertronian with blood red eyes and large protrusions on his shoulders, like the pincers of a rhinoceros beetle, stomped out of the fog. The mech was easily as large as Optimus and had an ugly, vicious looking cannon attached to his arm.

"Megatron." Optimus growled.

"Optimus, so good to see you again." Megatron sneered.

"Friend of yours?" Cap whispered to the Autobot leader.

The Prime's face clouded over. "Once. But not anymore." He turned to face the grey titan. "Why are you allied with this band of super villains?"

Megatron smiled cruelly. "In exchange for my aid, they promised me the world, Optimus."

Cap snorted. "Zemo doesn't like to share. He'll stab you in the back once your usefulness is at an end."

"What harm could a human possibly do to me?" The grey titan laughed viciously.

"More than you think." He hurled the shield at the titan's face, hard enough to leave a dent in his grey metal skin. The shield bounced off and struck Dynamo, shattering his suit's glass dome.

That's when things got strange. Dynamo let loose a blood-curdling scream and started waving his hands in front of him, shouting, "No, no! St-stay away! STAY AWAY!" He completely lost interest in the Autobot and his Avenger partner.

"Incompetent fool." Megatron snarled. "Must I do everything myself?"

He unsheathed his sword and charged Optimus, who in turn drew his own blade and blocked the attack. The soldier attempted to assist the Prime, but a large foot falling in his path convinced him otherwise. These two were much too large for him do anything to help. He'd only get in the way.

A short distance away, the stone glowed brighter, a large white beam shooting out from it.

OoooooooooooOooooooooooooo

[Iron Man, I believe I have found the source of the disturbances detected by your computer.] Thor said over the ID card.

"What is it, Thor?" Iron Man demanded.

[It is a Norn Stone. A relic of Asgardian magic created by Asgard's most powerful sorceress.]

Just as the Asgardian was about to continue, static flared across the ID card, halting the communication.

"Um, that's…not good." He said. "Someone just shut down our communications."

Ratchet had managed to subdue Living Laser, smacking him hard enough to knock him out cold.

"I can only assume that was Soundwave's handiwork. If he shut down your radio frequency, he must have also disabled ours. We won't be able to contact the others." Ratchet said gravely.

"Well dumb move on his part. We have an emergency channel set up in case something like this was to happen." Iron Man grinned. "Jarvis, fire it up."

OoooooooooOoooooooooooooooOoooooooo

Abomination growled and charged forward, swinging his large fists at the yellow and black Autobot. All the scout had to do was lift a foot to avoid the attack, and then stomp it back down to subdue the brute. He beeped worriedly at the prone super villain.

"You didn't kill him. He's extremely thick-skinned. Very hard to kill." Hank reassured him. "Thanks for helping out with him though."

"What do we do about the rock? Smash it?" Wasp asked.


	6. Chapter 6: This Hostage Earth

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 6

The two green bruisers were sent to a lake shore surrounded in pine forests. The Stone was floating over a dead tree sapling on a small island in the middle of the lake, with a large, heavy-set man gripping a war axe, guarding it.

"I got him." Bulkhead said.

The Hulk held out a big green hand to stop him. "No. He's mine." He growled. Hulk leapt over to the island in a single jump, landing behind the man and the two began trading titanic blows. The axe clearly wasn't of human make due to its ability to spit ice and fire at the Hulk; an Asgardian weapon.

The Hulk was getting absolutely pummeled by the thing, tanking hit after hit and somehow still managing to stand. Though granted, not much could hurt a giant green rage monster with extremely dense skin and super strength. It was only his dense skin that was keeping the magic axe from slicing him like a loaf of bread. One final hit sent Hulk flying and then sinking to the bottom of the lake, leaving the green Autobot to handle an extremely peeved and powerful Asgardian.

But no pressure.

OooooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooooo

"So, again, do we smash the weird glowing rock or just let it sit there all pretty?" Wasp repeated.

"No. We don't know what might happen if we destroy it. We wait for instructions from Thor, Panther, or possibly Iron Man. They're the resident experts." Ant-Man told her.

The ID cards of both Avengers began flashing and beeping frantically. Someone was desperately trying to get their attention.

[Avengers! You must destroy the Stones! The fate of the world depends on it!] Thor was saying. Then the message cut out.

Bumblebee trilled a few times and pointed at the stone, which now had a glowing symbol above it and a beam shooting out of it. The air seemed to shimmer and three colossal forms materialized. Each was gripping a melee weapon made of ice and were easily ten feet taller than the scout.

"We're doomed." Wasp whimpered.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooo

Chemistro had been restrained to a large tree trunk with one of Hawkeye's glue arrows-no chance of him getting free if he didn't have his shooter and could no longer use his hands.

The new voice was coming from the left of the duo, and a loud buzzing noise, coupled with the drawling tone of voice, gave away who it was. Knockout. A tree was sliced in half from the large buzz saw he was armed with, and the red Decepticon stalked forward, his blood colored optics murderous.

"Aw, come on! Not this bozo again! Where's Thor when you need him?" Hawkeye groaned.

The white Autobot glanced down at him in confusion. "Couldn't you just electrocute him again with one of your arrows? That worked last time."

"Yeah, except _I didn't bring any because I wasn't expecting to fight Mr. Vanity_ all over again!"

"….oh."

Knockout caught the archer's remark about not being prepared. "Then let's see how well you can stand up against me without the help of your friends!" He snarled. He whipped out what looked like a prod, its tip sparking with electricity. That coupled with the buzz saw now made him a very serious threat.

That's when Hawkeye realized that his Autobot partner had disappeared.

"And now I have to fight a psychotic alien robot with an ego issue. On my own. Yeah, sounds about right." He muttered. He readied his bow and a point tipped arrow. If he hit one of the exposed cables in the 'Con's legs, that might end up doing some damage. And probably make the alien scream like a little girl. A weird light pulse from the Stone distracted both fighters and what looked like little winged humans made of light zipped past.

"Um. What?" They said simultaneously.

"Did you do that?" Hawkeye asked.

"Do you honestly think that was me? I don't even know what I just saw!" Knockout argued.

"THINK FAST!" a white and black fist collided with the red 'Con's face, staggering him. Another blow sent him crashing to the ground in a heap.

"Okay, nice trick. Mind explaining the weird pixie things? And how you vanished into thin air?"

Smokescreen stared at him blankly. "…What's a pixie?"

OooooooooOooooooooooooooO

Panther and Arcee were trying to convince Wonder Man not to help Zemo. So far he seemed willing to accept. He understood that Zemo was a liar and a back-stabber of the worst kind. But his argument was that the Masters were the only reason he was alive. If he stopped helping them, he'd die.

Getting him to talk to them to begin with, however, had been a challenge. Only their agility had helped them avoid the ionic blasts that Wonder Man had fired at them. Panther finally managed to talk the super villain down, but the Wakandan had his claws out behind his back, just in case.

"What interest does this 'Zemo' character have in Asgard anyway?" Arcee asked.

"Zemo – he – it's nothing that you can stop." Wonder Man stuttered.

"I can hear the doubt in your voice. Whatever Zemo is planning, you obviously have reservations about it." Panther guessed smartly.

"I…" The villain trailed off and then flew away without another word.

"I feel bad for him. He's working for people he clearly doesn't like, and he doesn't have a choice about it." Arcee sighed.

"Perhaps the combination of Wakanda and Cybertronian science might be able to help him. If we survive what is to come, that is."

The stone shined brighter and started emitting pulses of light outward. Faint whispers echoed around through the mist, and dozens, if not hundreds, of strange, humanoid creatures made of shadow stalked out, clawed hands raised to strike.

OoooooooooooOoooooooooooo

Fighting the Asgardian had been easier than expected. Avoiding the magic axe was the problem. The fire or ice seemed to chase after the green Wrecker, but thanks to his metal armor, hardly did any significant damage. And the Hulk had gotten back out of the lake bottom and joined in the fray, making it even easier. A combined blow from both bruisers felled the Asgardian; the Hulk picked up the axe from the ground, examining it.

"Huh. Light weight." He said.

"Might as well hang on to it. Might come in handy." Bulkhead advised. "Plus it looks neat. Bet the Doc will love studying the thing."

OooooooooOoooooooooooooooooO

"Thor? Thor? Any tips on turning off a magic rock?" Iron Man demanded into his ID card.

The screen on it crackled to life, showing that Soundwave hadn't disabled the emergency channel. [Avengers! No matter the cost! You must destroy the Stones! The fate of the world depends on it!] Thor seemed agitated and upset. Tony severed the line to make sure that Soundwave couldn't trace it.

"Seems to spell things out, doesn't it?" He said to himself. He readied a repulsor blast, aiming it at the Stone. And fired.

In all the various locations, each Avenger carried out the order: Destroy the Stone, no matter what.

And each, along with the Cybertronians, both good and bad, were engulfed in a bright, white flash, knocking them unconscious.

In the mansion, Jarvis reported:

"All magical activity has ceased. Threat level: zero. Connection to Iron Man armor: lost. Connection to Avengers ID cards: lost. Connection to Autobot personal frequencies: lost. Avengers' bio signatures: not found. Autobot life signals: not found.

A robotic voice, monotone and laced with malic whispered:

"And so it begins."

**To be continued…**in part 2 :D

Sorry this one was so short. Don't worry; I'll make up for it in the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7: Separated

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 7

Hawkeye slowly came to his senses along with his Autobot partner. Knockout was lying a few yards away, still out cold, but showing signs of coming to. The armor of both Cybertronians looked scuffed and burned, as though it had been attacked with a low power flame thrower and then sent through a sander. So, in general, they didn't look so great.

Smokescreen's blue optics were flickering madly; Hawkeye didn't know a lot about machines, but he guessed that they were trying to re-adjust after the bright light, like how a person blinks a few times after a camera flash so that their pupils can re-adjust and re-size themselves to work with normal lighting again.

Then the two noticed the sky above. It was night time; it had been day time when they destroyed the Stone. How long had they been out of it? But the sky wasn't normal. It contained objects that looked like something out of a cross between a sci-fi and fantasy movie- weird planets, strange clouds, and all of that.

A thundering noise broke the silence-hooves by the sound of them. A trio of horses and riders charged past, nearly colliding with them, but the riders definitely weren't human. They wore light green armor, carried a bow, a quiver of arrows, and small short sword; their ears were long and pointy and their skin was paler than normal.

"Hey! Watch it!" Hawkeye shouted at them.

The lead rider turned his horse around to face them. "I suggest you and your companions run, archer. Loki's forces move swiftly." He gave the horse a swift kick and followed his friends without another word.

"Hey! You! With the ears!" He shouted again.

"Well that's descriptive." The white Autobot joked.

Hawkeye scowled at him then went back to shouting after he riders. "What is this place?! Where are we?! And what's a…Loki?"

A low growling noise from behind made the hairs on his neck stand on end. Piercing yellow eyes could been seen from the undergrowth, and the owners of the eyes stalked out.

Wolves. Like the ones Cap had described to Thor. Big, vicious wolves with Saber tooth cat like fangs. There was a whole pack of them.

And they looked hungry.

"Nice doggies…." They gulped.

OoooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooo

Iron Man came around and found himself being dragged. His armor was gone save for one gauntlet that, thankfully, still had a working repuslor. A white and amber ambulance drove alongside him.

"…Ratchet?" He gasped.

Whoever was dragging him stopped to look back at him. But they weren't human; they were about three or four feet tall, were wearing heavy, durable armor, and each had an axe or a mace strapped to their backs.

Tony flipped. He wrenched himself free and aimed the repulsor at the three midgets.

"Iron Man, relax. They're not enemies." Ratchet said.

"They were dragging me and they're all heavily armed?" He protested.

"We were trying to get you and your friend here to safety." One of the midgets, no, dwarves, said. He looked to be the leader and had a small circlet of gold on his head, rather than a helmet like his two buddies. "And we are armed as such to safeguard against attackers."

"Safety? Where?"

The leader dwarf spoke once more. "We go now to the Forge, the last remaining free stronghold. How did you and your compatriot end up here, if I might ask?"

"Ah…the last thing I remember, I destroyed the Stone-the Norn Stone?"

The dwarf's stern gaze faltered and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The Norn Stones are powerful magic. No doubt all part of Loki's plan."

"Wait a minute, Loki? Thor's brother? We aren't on Earth anymore are we?"

The ambulance stopped and turned its front wheels to the inventor. "He, Eitri, the leader here, said this place is called 'Nidavelier'. I explained in detail how we arrived here while you were still unconscious. He says than when you destroyed the Stone, it opened some sort of portal and brought us here."

"How come Lazer didn't get pulled through?"

"That, I do not know. He must've been just out of range of the portal."

"Now that everything is explained, we must get to the Forge." Eitri said.

"I have to find Thor, and the rest of my team!" Tony argued.

"My team as well." Ratchet added.

"We must get to safety first." Eitri ended the discussion and began walking down the tunnel.

"Safety? From what?"

The tunnel/cave trembled and shook. A loud yell of anger echoed around, and the owner of the voice smashed a nearby column to pieces with a large pair of metal knuckles. The being they belonged to was a huge, hairy, brute of a creature with small horns on his head, poking out of what looked like a lion's mane.

"Never mind." Iron Man squeaked.

OoooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooo

Ant-Man and Wasp were flying next to Bumblebee. Wherever they were, it was cold and it was snowing. A lot. The only way for the trio to keep warm was to keep moving. They stopped next to a cliff that had a small cave entrance to try and seek shelter and gauge their position. Just as they tried to catch their breaths, a monstrous, razor-sharp axe cleaved into the rock right above their heads. They all turned to see who had swung.

And nearly panicked.

Three giants, all made of ice and frost, stood glaring at them. The one who had swung the axe said:

"You shouldn't have trespassed in Jotunheim, mortals."

Wasp whimpered and flew behind the scout for protection, who in turn raised his blasters at the giants and buzzed a warning.

"Jotunheim, huh? Well guys-" Ant-Man grew to stand nearly as tall as the scout. "I'm pretty certain you aren't interested in talking this out. And quite frankly…" He yanked the axe out the rock, "NEITHER AM I!" and charged the giants headlong, much to their astonishment.

OooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooo

Mist and fog swirled around him, blocking out his sight.

Cap officially hated fog.

He couldn't find Optimus anywhere, but he knew he'd gotten transferred to here with him…Wherever "here" was. He checked his ID card to see if he could contact the other Avengers, or failing that, find out where he was. Nothing. No signal; great. This was why he hated technology, it always failed to work when you really, really needed it to.

A whisper made him start and turn. That voice…he knew that voice. He crept toward another fog bank, shield raised to strike, but stopped it mere inches from…_Manelli_?! There was no way….

The man then dispersed on the wind, leaving no trace he'd ever been there. Not even foot prints from his combat boots. Explosions went off around him, but it was like they weren't really there. The sound from the explosions was muffled, like a giant cloth had dropped over them. Silhouettes of the other Commandoes appeared in front of the explosions. Then faded away to nothingness, just as Manelli had.

The Avenger backed away out of fear, eyes wide with fear and apprehension. He kept backing away…and backed into something hard and metal. He yelped in spite of himself and spun around, only to end up face to…grill….with a red and blue Peterbilt semi.

Cap let out a relieved sigh. At least there was someone here beside himself that was actually solid.

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I do not." Optimus answered him. He sounded wary and on edge. He must have had a similar experience.

"We better start looking for a way out. Come on."

OooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooo

Panther was intently studying the soil of their new location. His suit had tech laced into the hood even more advanced than the Iron Man armor, but it wasn't having any luck in identifying where they were.

Arcee had her arm blades out, on lookout while the Wakandan worked. Eventually he gave up and stood back up to full height.

"No luck, huh?" She guessed.

"None whatsoever. I can only assume that we are no longer on Earth, but in one of the Nine Realms of Asgard." His eyes narrowed as he spoke, watching a dark cloud swirl and move closer. The cloud seemed to notice the scrutiny and surged forward, revealing it to be made of out of the strange shadowy humanoids they had encountered before the Stone had been broken.

Two sets of eyes widened and they took off running, Arcee shifting into her vehicle form to allow Panther to hitch a ride. The shadow cloud gave chase, hissing. Arcee may be fast, but how can you outdrive the wind, especially intelligent, magical wind?

They needed a way out. NOW.

OoooooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooo

Hulk and Bulkhead had wound up in a place filled with trees, dirt roads leading in every direction.

They were now watching a convoy of mobile prisons guarded by monsters that looked somewhat similar to the Hulk, but much uglier and meaner looking. A whip cracked near one of the cages and the prisoners shrunk back and huddled together.

"Enough waiting. They need our help." Hulk growled.

"I agree. Let's wreck 'em!" Bulkhead grinned.

The two bruisers jumped down and landed in front of the convoy, Hulk wielding the axe he had stolen and Bulkhead using his wrecking ball hand.

One of the monster jailers looked startled and rather ticked that the convoy had been stopped.

"What are they? Do they have such ugly things in Vanaheim?" it said.

A larger monster with yellow skin, the one using the whip, snarled and barked out an order:

Whatever they are, bring me their heads!"

Each bruiser readied themselves for a fight as two of the creatures charged for them.

OoooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooooO

Smokescreen had managed to shift into a racecar just as the wolves made a bee line for them. Hawkeye got in without any hesitation and the car took off down the trail the horse riders had taken.

"Getthemoffmegetthemoffmegetthemoffme!" the car screamed.

One of the wolves was suddenly knocked away and sent tumbling into a shrub. A red Aston Martin pulled up beside the white racecar. Knockout just helped them out?

"We must be in some freakish alternate reality if a Decepticon just helped us." Smokescreen said over the dash board speakers.

The Aston must've heard him and used his own speakers to retort. "No; that one scratched my paintjob. I wanted payback."

"Why aren't you attacking us now, then?"

Knockout didn't seem very happy with what he was about to say. He said:

"Well, seeing as we're no doubt stranded in another dimension with no way to contact our respective allies, I thought perhaps you would permit a temporary truce. At least until we can get back." He drawled.

The archer and his partner broke out laughing. "You-you honestly expect us to believe you? You, a 'Con?"

"Heck, I'd rather trust Zemo than a 'Con." Hawkeye snorted.

The sports car revved its engine in a seeming snort. "Trust is over rated. All I'm suggesting is a temporary alliance until we can get back to our own dimension."

The three of them finally caught up with the horse riders. They appeared surprised to find two brightly painted automobiles dutifully following them with a pack of blood-thirsty wolf monsters chasing after the cars.

Two of the riders pulled out their bows and notched an arrow. The strings were released and the arrows sent flying towards their targets. The arrows, halfway there, began glowing bright gold, then released a kind of glowing veil of gold light, and half the wolves evaporated when the veil struck them.

"Thanks for the assist, fellas! But we got more on our tails!" Hawkeye told them.

One of the wolves lunged and snapped at one of the horses, only to end up kicked in the snout. Another was slightly luckier, leaping for a second horse and sinking its fangs into the stallion's hind leg. The horse whinnied and tripped, the rider jumping off and drawing his short sword as the horse fell on its side, the attacker wolf finishing it off with a deep bite to the throat. The rider, now without a means of transport except his own two legs, appeared ready to stay behind and avenge his horse, but Hawkeye wasn't about to let him go down. He kicked open the driver's side door and jumped out, hitting the ground in a roll, and took up a defensive stance next to the rider. He now had a better look at him. Clint had never believed in elves, but after the whole Malekith incident, he was willing to change that.

"I thank you for your aid, archer, but now both of us are doomed." The elf said.

Hawkeye offered a cocky grin, "No we're not." He said, and whistled for Smokescreen to turn around and offer a ride to the elf. The racecar screeched to a stop and wheeled around, ramming a few of the wolves as it came back to pick them up. The elf was unceremoniously shoved into the passenger seat and Hawkeye got in after him. Smokescreen gunned the gas pedal and shot after the retreating Knockout and the other two elves.

OoooooooooooooOooooooooooo

Tony was forced to jump the side as the brute swung the knuckles in his direction. Guess all those training sessions with Cap were finally paying off.

One of the dwarves leapt into action, vaulting off the tunnel wall and trying to slam the brute in the face with his mace. The brute spotted the attack and the dwarf was knocked aside, hitting the wall and crumpling into a heap on the floor. The second dwarf attempted the same thing, and met with the same result. The monster roared with savage laughter.

"Do you have any more challengers for me, Eitri?" it boomed.

"How 'bout me?" Tony challenged.

It laughed again and leaned down. "And who are you?" it sneered, poking the human in the chest with each word.

Tony lifted his gauntleted palm up and blasted the brute in the face with enough force to send him careening into a stone column, dazed.

"I'm Iron Man."

The brute staggered back up. "No one defeats Ulik! Especially a puny mortal from Midgard!"

He charged the inventor and snatched at him. Tony dodged again. He'd learned over the years that the larger the opponent, the slower they were, but it also meant they were very durable, and seeing as he no longer had access to his uni-beam without his armor, he needed another way to access it. He spotted one of the small daggers that one of the downed dwarfs had dropped a few yards away, next to Ulik's feet.

If only he could get to it without being killed. Or, you know, suffer cardiac arrest due to his insane idea.

OooooooooooooooOooooooooooo

Arcee was going as fast as she could, but only managing to keep a few yards ahead of the angry black shadow that was pursuing her and Panther. Her rider whipped out a vibranium dagger and elongated the energy on it, creating a spear, and launched it at the shadows. The spear fed off of the energy the shadow creatures gave off and imploded, scattering the shadow into multiple tiny ones that were hopefully slower.

Panther's hood began scanning for magical energies that might indicate a way out.

It locked onto something that looked like a well. "Take us there and jump in! That is our way out!" He said.

"You sure?" She asked.

"I am! Do it!"

The shadows coalesced back into a giant shadow and surged after them, enraged that their prey was escaping.

Arcee gunned the accelerator and used a rock to launch herself into the well. She changed back out her vehicle form, grabbed Panther, and dropped in. The shadow freight trained harmlessly overhead.

OooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooooo

One of the monster's that had charged them went flying from a well-placed blow from Hulk and the axe. The second was flattened by Bulkhead's wrecking ball. The rest of the monster's charged forward, only to be frozen in place by the axe's magical ice. But more of them just kept coming.

"I can handle these things! Go free the captives!" Bulkhead ordered.

Hulk growled and leapt for the cages.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooooo

The three icy giants had been felled by the combined effort of the two Avengers and their Autobot partner. Bumblebee was already showing signs of the cold affecting him; frost was coating his armor. But the scout refused to let it stop him. More icy giants appeared, the one leading them being even larger than the others and had a strange box on a string around his neck. It opened it and froze Ant-Man and Bumblebee in place, leaving Wasp alone to handle the giants.

Suddenly, a portal opened in the sky above, and three women-one armed with a sword, the others armed with glowing spears-shot out, all riding winged horses.

"Attack!" The lead one shouted. The other two hefted their spears and threw them at the giants, only for them to be deflected by the giants' weapons. The lead woman swooped low and slashed at the box-wearing giant with her sword, leaving a gaping cut that healed back to normal in seconds. If simply cutting the giants was their plan, they would need to come up with a new one.

Bumblebee managed to blast the ice encasing him and Ant-Man, freeing them and allowing them to rejoin the battle. The box-wearing giant opened the box again and tried to freeze one of the spear-wielding women. The winged horse nimbly dodged the attack and flew back around for another strike. The scout aided the woman and let loose a barrage of blasts at the giant, pinning him and allowing the other three riders to combine their attack, felling the giant. The other two, frightened that their larger comrade was defeated so easily, took off running, not even bothering to try and avenge their friend.

The three women led their horses down from the air and landed in the snow near the other trio of fighters. The scout trilled a cheery greeting at them and waved his hand, but the cold seemed to be making him slightly lethargic and slow.

"I am Sif, commander of the Valkyries." The lead woman introduced herself, and turned to the freezing Autobot, "Truly you are a wonder-a living automaton. I doubt that even Eitri and has dwarves could have constructed you. How came you and your allies to Yotunheim?"

"That's…kind of a long story, and I don't want to stick around to see if the two giants that ran off actually ran off to get help. Can you help us get out of here?" Wasp asked.

"Follow us. We shall show you the way." Sif said. She and the two Valkyries got back on their flying horses and took to the air, leading the three heroes through the snow and toward the Bifrost Bridge that would lead to Asgard.


	8. Chapter 8: Lost

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 8

"So, who or what are you? Where are we? Why do you have pointy ears?" Smokescreen belted out his questions.

To say the elf was startled may been putting it lightly. In flash he whipped out a pair of long hunting knives and held them in front of the dashboard. Hawkeye reacted just as fast and grabbed the elf's wrists.

"Whoa, easy there pal. He's friendly. True, he's young, impulsive, and reckless, but that doesn't mean you get to stab him just 'cause he asked you a few questions."

The racecar hummed in agreement. "Exactly Haw….Hey!" He realized what the Avenger had said. "I am _not_!"

The elf remained silent while he listened to the two banter with each other and then managed to get a word in:

"Your vehicle…It can speak and think? How is that possible?"

"Because…I'm an Autobot?" Smokescreen tried to explain. "'Free thinking sentient machine from another planet'?"

"English, Einstein, not Stark techno-babble." Hawkeye scolded. He turned to the elf. "I think what he's trying to say is that he's, putting it very simply, a living machine with a mind of his own. And he's not just a car-he's a giant robot."

The elf seemed fascinated on hearing this. "Incredible…." He reached out to touch the dashboard, placing a hand on the screen. "I…apologize for attempting to harm you." He cocked his head to one side in puzzlement. "The archer keeps referring to you as a 'he'; do you have a name?"

"Smokescreen!" the racecar chirped. "The red car next to us is called Knockout. What's yours?"

To their surprise, a smile broke out on the elf's face. "You have very unusual names. I am Faradei. And, in answer to your former question, you are in Alfheim, home realm of the Light Elves. I once again thank you for aiding me."

"Told you we were weren't on Earth anymore, Autobot." Knockout said smugly over his own dashboard.

"Oh gee, what was your first hint?" The racecar shot back sarcastically.

OooooooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooooooo

The plan itself was crazy. Even for him. And Tony did "crazy" on an almost daily basis with his team. Basically he would nab the sword, let Ulik catch him, and then use the sword to pry the covering off of the arc reactor in his chest, and blast the monster at point blank range with it. If, you know, he didn't suffer immediate cardiac arrest due to removing the cover.

But hey, what's life without the risks?

Ulik bellowed another war cry and charged Ratchet, who merely stepped aside and let the giant bulldoze past him and ram into a stone column. Clearly, Ulik wasn't a tactical fighter-he relied solely on brute strength, which might make taking him down a whole lot simpler. Tony managed to creep past and snatch the small sword, making just enough noise for Ulik to hear him. Which the giant did. Ulik rounded on the Avenger and grabbed him in his hands, foolishly grabbing the human by the scruff of his bodysuit and leaving his hands free.

Tony raised the sword in a threat, but the giant simply laughed.

"HA! You think a little knife like that can hurt _me_?!" Ulik bellowed.

"No. But I think this can." The human's voice had gone icy calm, and he drove the tip of the sword into the crevice between the reactor and its cover. A huge wave of energy surged out of the reactor and pummeled Ulik, sending him flailing into a wall and slumping down to the ground, unconscious and defeated. With nothing holding Tony in the air any more, he dropped down to the floor as well with a thud.

"Oh yeah…That showed him….not to mess with me." He could barely breathe and it took almost all of his strength to get that quip out. He promptly passed out.

"IRON MAN!" Ratchet cried. He turned to the dwarf king desperately. "We need to locate the cover for the device in his chest. Rafael explained to me that, without it, Iron Man's heart will give out and he will assuredly die."

Eitri nodded and joined the Autobot medic in searching for the cover. Due to its light blue color, finding it was relatively easy, since it contrasted sharply with the grey stone walls of the tunnel. Eitri grabbed in and rushed over to the unconscious Avenger, placing it back in its rightful place and sealing the reactor, allowing it to recharge.

With a dry gasp and cough Tony woke back up, casting a grateful look at both the medic and the dwarf king. Ratchet let out a relived sigh and changed back into his ambulance form, propping open the door for him. The inventor ignored it and tried to walk ahead, but not getting very far before being stopped.

"Ep, ep, ep. You are no condition to be walking. In." Ratchet ordered.

Tony shrugged and stumbled in, the door clicking shut after him. The two injured dwarfs turned out to be not as injured as they believed and walked beside the ambulance. He guessed the only thing injured was their pride.

"So, this Forge place? What do you build there?" Tony tried to make light conversation with the dwarf king.

Eitri gave proud smile. "We dwarves are the finest smiths in the Nine Realms. In this place, I personally crafted Thor Odinson's hammer, Mjonir."

An idea wormed its way into the inventor's head. He asked:

"Ever make a suit of armor?"

OoooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooo

The cold was definitely starting to affect the scout. Ant-Man's helmet ran a scan of his core temperature, and it was well below what he believed it should be. The frost accumulation was more noticeable. He motioned for Sif to come low enough so she could hear him without shouting.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Yes. We need to get Bumblebee someplace warmer quickly. A Cybertronian's systems don't seem to adjust well to extreme temperatures-if we don't get him heated back up, his entire body will start shutting down one system at a time. It'll eventually kill him I think."

"We must make haste then." Sif realized. "Is there any way to slow it?"

"I don't know. And I don't want to risk messing with his internal systems-I might cause irreparable harm."

She nodded. "Understandable. Even I can see that these 'Cybertronians' are very complex."

Wasp flitted up to the scout's faceplates and asked him a question:

"You don't happen to have snow chains in there somewhere, do you?"

He buzzed a few times in answer.

"No, yeah, I get that. But they might be stored away in your car mode's trunk or something and you just forgot about them. You 'Bots always seem ready for anything."

He trilled and reverted back into a muscle car and opened the trunk, allowing the two size changers to search.

Wasp gripped something and, with a huff, dragged it out and dropped it onto the snow. They were snow chains.

"See?" She said triumphantly. The scout gave a happy bwoop and let them attach the chains to his tires. "Yeah, I know. You bring something along and you think you'll never need it, and then it turns out you do end up needing it-and in the weirdest circumstances, too!"

"Nice thinking Jan. Now we can really pick up the pace and get him someplace warmer." Hank complimented her. Bumblebee buzzed and shot off, leaving the two size changers to shout after him:

"HEY! WAIT UP!"

Even the three Asgardians shouted out. "Slow your progress! We must not attract undue attention!"

The scout slowed down enough for the group to catch up, letting the two size changers inside so they wouldn't get left behind in the snow, the three flying horses and their riders following them from the sky.

OooooooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooooo

The green Autobot dealt with the mini army of monsters easily. The most damage they could do to him was a few good sized dings to his thick armor plating. The road was littered with unconscious monsters, while the few who managed to survive had fled the scene quickly.

The Hulk, meanwhile, had quite literally smashed the cages into splinters. The prisoners got out and remained clustered in small groups, wary of the two green giants that had just decimated their captors.

One of the free prisoners let out a hearty laugh. "Well fought, giants! Truly, you possess the gift of battle!" The man who had spoken bowed formally. "I am Volstagg, the Voluminous! And with your combined strength…we can take back Asgard this day!"

"Wait, back up. Asgard? And those things said this is some place called 'Vanaheim'. Where the scrap are we?"

"We aren't on Earth anymore, that's for sure. As long as I get to smash more things, I'm happy with that." Hulk growled and pounded his fists together. "When do we start?"

OoooooooooooooooOooooooooooooo

It felt like they'd been on the move for days, but it reality it must've only been a few hours. The semi was nervous enough to never let the super soldier out of his line of sight for even a second, and the thick, gloomy fog only seemed to amplify the truck's uneasiness. The only noise in the place was the occasional creepy whispering that seemed to come from all around and yet nowhere at the same time.

"Optimus?" The soldier decided to break the silence before it drove him crazy.

The semi didn't respond verbally, but Cap could tell he was listening.

"What's a Prime?"

Optimus clearly hadn't expecting a question of this manner, and he slowed down slightly, almost coming to a complete stop. "Why do you ask that?"

"No reason, really. It just…seems important."

The semi seemed content with this answer and was silent for some time as he mulled over his own response. "A Prime….I am uncertain if humans have a suitable equivalent for me to use. But I will explain as best I can. At any rate, I can explain one aspect fairly easily."

"During war or conflict, a Prime is the leader of whatever army he or she sided with. A General, if you will."

"So you're a military leader." Cap summed up. "I guess that means you outrank me. Do _not_ tell Clint that though-he'll never live that one down."

"Indeed." Optimus sounded as though he was trying really, really hard to not to metaphorically smile. "But the other aspect-as I said before, I do not believe that humans have a suitable equivalent. They act as peacekeepers and normally try to remain neutral or on the side of good, and act as direct links to Cybertron's core, Primus."

"So the title 'Prime' is a spin-off of that name." The super soldier thought over this. "Wait, are you saying your planet is literally alive?"

"Yes."

Cap shook his head in amazement. "And here I thought I'd seen everything. Then again, you _did_ say that there was a giant Cybertronian living inside our planet, but it's an evil one and tried to destroy everything. But you guys managed to kill it.

"Unicron, yes. And he is not dead, merely in stasis-comatose, to use your human terminology."

"So that means he'll wake up eventually?"

"Eventually. Hopefully never."

The fog suddenly dispersed in front of them, revealing a staircase adorned with creepy braziers at the base burning with green fire. Low, feminine laughter wafted down. And it wasn't a nice laugh.

"Well, isn't this a surprise?" the female voice spoke from higher up the stairs. There was a throne higher up, and a middle-aged woman sat on it, stroking the head of a large wolf with purple markings on its light brown coat. The wolf itself seemed far friendlier than the woman, swishing its tail back and forth as though waiting for one of the two beings farther down the steps to throw a ball for it.

That's when the noticed something else next to the woman. Attached to a pair of glowing purple chains was a large grey and purple Cybertronian fighter jet, struggling to free itself by gunning the thrusters constantly.

"Megatron?" Cap guessed.

"RELASE ME AT ONCE WITCH!" The jet howled. The voice confirmed his guess.

"Megatron! Stop struggling! You will only end up exhausting your energy reserves!" Optimus ordered.

The jet snarled but disengaged the thrusters, switching back into robot form and scowling at both parties in equal hatred. The 'Con's cannon/sword arm, his other hand, and both of his ankles were also shackled, leaving him with no means of escape.

The woman smiled cruelly. "And why would I release you? You are far too valuable to me."

Megatron snarled again and tried to charge her, but the chains held him at bay. She turned to the other Cybertronain with the same cruel smile. "You, machine, have something I want. And, I believe, something you want." With a snap of her fingers, a large - even by Cybertronian standards – sword spun slowly on her other side.

The Prime's optics widened. "The Star Saber." Then they narrows in suspicion. "How did you come to possess it?"

"One of my servants found it, buried in a mountain on Midgard. But, as you can see, it is of little use to me since I am unable to fully exploit its powers." The woman explained. "You have the means to activate it…and I want it."

"No." The red and blue Autobot said with finality.

The woman frowned angrily. "If you will not give it to me, I will simply take it from you by force!"

Black fire erupted out of her hands and shot down the steps, taking the form of huge, shadowy, claws. They were mere inches from his chest when something just as strange happened: a ring of white fire circled the two leaders, creating a brilliant barrier. The shadow claws struck the white fire and seemed to scream in pain before dissipating. The woman was clearly furious at being denied what she wanted. She tried once more, only to be met with the same result.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, lass." A new voice, with a distinctly Southern accent, warned. "Some bots don't take too kindly to a Prime being attacked."

OoooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooooooo

They'd jumped into the well and almost instantly ended up somewhere entirely different. Instead of dead trees, live, brilliant green trees formed a canopy above their heads, and replacing the barren, skull littered soil of their former location, soft grass coated the ground. It looked like a complete, polar opposite to the place they'd just been.

"I can't believe that actually worked." Arcee admitted.

"I suppose, here, one must combat strange with strange, and ignore the normal rules of reality." Panther told her.

The femme bot actually managed a small, genuine, smile. "Careful. You're starting to sound like Optimus."

"Am I?" Panther asked innocently.

"Hop on. Let's see if we can find our friends here." She changed back into a motorcycle and let the Wakandan on, bolting down one of the barely noticeable paths into the forest.

It didn't take very long for them to find tell-tale tire marks in the dirt; two sets, and both of them Arcee knew well. Two sets of hoof prints trailed alongside the tire marks, as well as numerous paw prints.

"Oh thank Primus! Smokescreen's still alive!" She sighed in relief. "And that must mean your buddy Hawkeye survived as well."

"And the other marks?" Panther wondered.

"Knockout's."

"Does that mean-?"

"No. The rookie would _never _switch sides, no matter what. This must mean that the two have agreed to a temporary truce until they can get back to Earth. And _I_ know that _he_ knows that to fully trust a 'Con is to sign a death wish, so he's probably going out of his way to keep Hawkeye safe, especially after he shot Knockout in the chest and electrocuted him."

"I don't doubt it. And, as a side note, those paw prints are wolf prints, meaning they are being pursued, and even more likely, hunted."

"Hold on." The motorcycle kicked into overdrive, speeding along and following the tire marks and prints, scanning for one Autobot and one Decepticon life signal, hoping, praying, that the others had survived as well.

In the distance, they could faintly make out the sound of howling.


	9. Chapter 9: RegroupingMostly

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 9

The wolves kept getting closer and closer, snapping and biting at the horses and the two cars. The other two Light Elves managed to keep the pack at bay with their strange arrows, but whenever one was taken down, another appeared to take its place, and they would eventually run out of arrows.

"Do these things ever stop coming?!" Knockout cried.

"Aww what's the matter? You scared of a couple of wolves, 'Con?" Hawkeye mocked him.

Faradei scowled at him. "I would not take this matter so lightly, archer."

"Hey, cracking jokes during impending doom in kinda my thing." Hawkeye protested.

The sound of another, third, engine got everyone's undivided attention, even that of the wolves. A barrage of vibranium arrowheads whizzed out of the underbrush, striking the last four wolves (for the moment the "last") and killing them quickly and painlessly. A man wearing a panther themed suit riding a blue motorcycle with pink highlights burst out.

"T'Challa!" Clint shouted.

"And Arcee! You guys are okay!" the racecar added in, and it took a small lecture from Faradei to keep him from driving giddy circles around the two.

"And where the slag have you been?" Knockout hissed.

"Trust me; you're better off _not_ knowing. I'm going to have nightmares for days when this is over." Arcee said.

Faradei clambered out of Smokescreen's cabin along with Hawkeye, crowding together with the two newcomers and the other two Light Elves.

"This is but a respite. My lord Frey has already fallen…but there is a ship that can take you and your allies to safety." The lead Elf said.

"Nuh-uh. We are _so_ not leaving you here to be wolf kibble." The racecar argued.

"And we aren't bailing on saving our friends." Arcee added.

Faradei smiled thinly at them. "I never said I wasn't coming with you, and I never said you were to flee. If you wish to take back Asgard, you will require the aid of every good-hearted Asgardian, myself included."

"Well then what are we waiting around for?" the red Aston drawled. "To the ship!...It _is_ large enough to accommodate three automobiles…right?"

Faradei nodded. "It is, as well as the archer and his companion." He waved for them to follow. "This way."

OoooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooooo

The Forge was an absolutely gargantuan area, with huge vaulted ceilings adorned with stalactites, little rivulets of lava slithering along the stone floor, anvils and cooling vats dotting the expanse, and a massive "water" wheel that turned lava instead of water. It was more than big enough to fit Ratchet and let him stand to full height without any problems, and well lit enough for him to see without issue.

Tony loved it. The dwarf king had allowed him to build a suit of armor made from Uru, the same, electric, magical-y metal that Thor's hammer was made of, which would give him a huge advantage against Loki. The only bad thing was-he had to make everything by hand, since there was no Jarvis to help assemble the parts, or mechanical arms for that matter. But since he'd built his first suit with a bunch of scrap metal in cave with his own two hands, this wasn't unfamiliar territory for him.

It was long, grueling work, but Eitri and about three other dwarves made the work go faster. He'd drawn out the general design of it, and the dwarves had begun construction of the suit with gusto, working on the larger plates, while Tony worked on the sensitive wiring and smaller parts, like the gauntlets and helmet HUD.

Ratchet watched them work with immense interest. A supposed "magic" metal being used to construct, not just a weapon, but an entire suit of armor that could itself be considered a wearable weapon. And the way that Stark worked, he clearly loved to build and create things. No wonder he'd taken to robotics and technology; he was happiest when figuring some sort of problem out with his brain and hands. With the help of the dwarves, the entire suit, wiring and all, was done in about an hour and a half, which was truly remarkable. The suit crackled with electricity as soon as the inventor got into it, the arc reactor in his chest glowing even brighter due to the immense energy that the metal retained.

Tony activated the hand and foot thrusters, and flew up the medic's faceplates. "So, how does it look?"

"I must admit, I'm impressed." The medic did indeed sound impressed.

"Why don't we go kick Loki's butt then?" Tony grinned behind the helmet.

OoooooooooooooOooooooooooooooo

The snow chains made all the difference in the world. With them, the scout maintained a steady 40 miles per hour through the snow, Sif and the two Valkyries riding their winged horses overhead and acting as aerial surveillance, guiding them to the Bifrost Bridge. No Frost Giants ever appeared, and the Bifrost could be seen glittering in the distance, getting ever closer. When they reached the Bridge, the yellow and black muscle car stopped right at the edge, unsure how to react to the fact that he was supposed to drive on a rainbow and not fall through.

"Do not be afraid, Bumblebee. The Bifrost will support you." Sif reassured him. Thus encouraged, the car tentatively inched onto the rainbow; it felt just as solid as any ground. The scout gunned the accelerator and shot ahead, almost leaving Sif and the two Valkyries behind.

"Wooo!" Wasp cheered.

Even the three Asgardians joined in. "For Asgard!" They shouted.

OooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooo

Cap whipped around and held up his shield. "Who's there?"

A large form moved around in the mist, its silhouette too blurred to make out what it was. Whatever it was, it was definitely big, easily 20 feet in height. Instead of a worded answer to his demand, laughter wafted through the gloom; but it wasn't cruel laughter like the woman's. It was hearty and cheerful and amused.

"Is he always this jumpy, Prahm?" the Southern accented voice joked. The blurred form stepped out of the mist…

Neither Optimus nor his human companion knew how to react to what they were seeing. It was a Cybertronian with a dark red paintjob, friendly blue eyes, and an Autobot crest on his shoulder. It wasn't those characteristics that startled the two, though.

The Autobot stranger in question was transparent. They could see right through him. What looked like a tiny star twinkled in the center of his chest.

Optimus stood rigid for a moment, not moving, not even blinking. Then:

"…_Ironhide_?"

"Bingo." Ironhide grinned. He turned his attention back to the woman on the throne. "You really don't wanna mess with 'im, lady. And if you want the Matrix from 'im, you gotta go through _me_ first."

"And me!"

"And me!"

"Us too!"

"Count us in!"

"And I as well."

An entire army of spectral Cybertronians, consisting of both Autobot and Decepticon, mechs and femmes, materialized out of the gloom, heads and weapons held high in defiance.

"I have nothing to fear from you, spirits. You belong to _me_!" The woman snarled.

"Actually…" yet another new voice retorted calmly. The white light barrier came to life and swirled into the form of another Cybertronian, this one dwarfing even the largest Autobots and Decepticons present. Its paintjob was white and dotted with numerous glowing symbols, while its eyes were a brilliant, shining gold. And it had a huge, gold and silver shotgun in place of one its hands, pointed right at the woman on the throne.

"They belong to _me_." The giant white mech told her simply.

"We'd recommend listening to the dude with the giant shotgun!" a pair of mechs, one yellow and one red chimed in. They looked exactly alike apart from their color schemes. Twins, maybe?

The giant white mech turned on the pair with an amused twinkle in his gold eyes. "Really?"

"What?" the twins asked innocently.

Cap had quietly snuck behind the Autobot beside him, hoping the giant white mech wouldn't spot him. Of course, one of the other ghostly robots noticed him – a blue, black, and white mech with what looked like speakers attached to his legs - , but instead of raising the alarm, so to speak, gave him a knowing wink.

The giant white mech turned back to the woman. "They do not belong to you. So, I will ask kindly once: release them now, as well as the three living beings that strayed here by accident."

The woman snarled and the shadow claws reappeared once again, going for the giant white mech, but he simply waved his hand and made them vanish. He hefted the shotgun and the tip glowed white hot. The woman's eyes widened in alarm, and then they narrowed.

"I don't answer to you."

"No?" he sounded like a disappointed father. "If _I_ cannot persuade you, then perhaps _they_ can."

More ghosts appeared, but they looked nothing like the ones seen so far. They were giant, metal, animals. Some had the appearance of dragons, giant serpents, wolves, a hydra; Cap even spotted what looked like a metal griffin.

On an invisible signal, every metal animal ghost spit a stream of fire at the woman, who screamed and dissolved into shadow, gone from sight. But now the ghosts, all of them, were no longer transparent-at least, not as much as they'd been before. The magical chains binding Megatron shattered and clattered to the floor before dissolving, as well.

The giant white mech shook his head. "I do so wish she would stop being so arrogant and childish." Its head turned slightly and the gold eyes focused on Optimus's foot which the super soldier was hiding behind. They seemed to bore right through the metal and see him, quietly observing him. "Peace, Captain. I mean you no harm."

In flash the shield was sent flying right up the giant mech's face, but with a swift movement, caught it between two of his digits. It examined the shield curiously for a moment, but instead of blasting the human, it knelt down and gingerly handed the shield back to him.

"I believe this is yours?" it said politely.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooooo 

The ship that Faradei had told them about was docked and ready to leave at a moment's notice. But rather than being docked on water, it was floating in the sky on the edge of the realm.

"A flying ship?" Knockout wondered. "You've _got_ to be kidding."

"Nay, I do not joke." Faradei chided the Aston. "This is how we will get to Asgard."

One of the tiny pixies that Hawkeye had spotted before flew up to the Light Elf, chattering and whispering to him.

"Thank you." Faradei dismissed the pixie, who promptly flew off to rejoin its friends. The Elf turned to his new allies. "I have been informed that two other strangers have been spotted. In Vanaheim, there is word of two giants, one metal, one not. Both are green."

"That sounds like Bulkhead and the Hulk. Would it be at all possible to stop there and pick them up?"

The Elf shook his head. "The ship may be large, but it cannot hold that many passengers. They will have to find another way to reach Asgard."

The two Avengers, the three Light Elves, two Autobots, and a temporarily friendly Decepticon dutifully boarded the ship.

OooooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooo

When "Volstagg" had mentioned transport, Bulkhead hadn't been expecting a portal to open right in front of them and three chariots, each pulled by two rams, to walk out.

The majority of the captives had fled to safety aside from Volstagg and two others. One looked Oriental, with slanted eyes, black hair, olive skin, and carried a mace, while the other had blond hair and a beard and looked British, and had a long sword sheathed in a scabbard on his hip. All three Asgardians got into one chariot each and drove right into the portal.

Bulkhead and the Hulk followed them through into a long blue light tunnel; the former having reverted back to vehicle mode, and the latter hitching a ride on top of the green SUV's hood. If anything, it looked a lot like a groundbridge, and acted the same as well. The green Autobot could just see the end of the tunnel, and saw a veritable army on the other side of it.

They all gathered at the end of the tunnel, waiting. The two heavy hitters heard one of the giant monsters say:

"The Bifrost Bridge is opening! More rebel warriors to crush!"

"You wanna crush something!? Try us!" The two heavy hitters leapt out and attacked the nearest giant, felling it with some well-placed hits to the face.

The charioteers charged out and began attacking as well. The Oriental's chariot was smashed to bits by a giant ice axe, but that didn't deter him in the slightest, and used it to his advantage, swinging his mace at the giant who had shattered his chariot before landing with cat-like grace on the ground. The other charioteers leapt off their rides and let the rams fly back to safety, landing on the heads of two more giants and felling them as well.

The three Asgardians lines up in front of the opposing monster army, which was being led by red armored Asgardians-Loki's followers. One of them said:

"By Loki's decree, those who do not bow before him will be executed. Surrender."

The blonde haired Asgardian retorted with anger. "Traitors! We will never bow to Loki!"

Hulk ran forward without the least warning, the stolen axe raised.

"Mortal! Wait!" The blonde Asgardian cautioned.

A slash from the rouge Asgardian's halberd struck Hulk full on, knocking him back and stunning him. The army surrounded the three smaller rebels and pinned them down, though appeared wary of engaging the burly green Autobot with the giant spiked wrecking ball for a hand.

_Zzap! Zzap! Zzap!_ The monsters pinning Hulk doubled over from a volley of yellow light attacks. No, not light. He grinned in spite of himself. Stings. Wasp's stings!

Three winged horses and a black and yellow muscle car stormed down the rainbow bridge, the three women riding the winged steeds striking with savagery at the monsters pinning the other three pinned Asgardians, while the car flat out rammed them. Ant-Man had gone big and was helping Bulkhead hold off the Frost Giants. Bumblebee was assisting the two as well, happy to see his friend alive and essentially unhurt.

One of the women riders was knocked off her horse by one of the Giants and freefell towards the ground. Hulk jumped up and grabbed her before she had the chance to fall even five feet, landing with a thud on the bridge. It went from bad to worse when the Giant slashed downward, striking the Hulk. Thankfully, he'd managed to shield her from the brunt of the blow, but the Giant tried to have another go at him, only to be quickly shoved aside by two Autobots and a giant-sized human. The attacking Frost Giant's sword was also suddenly cut in half by a blazing arrow and a volley of red energy blasts. A light colored wooden ship soared in and landed on the rainbow bridge, knocking the final group of monsters off and sent tumbling into the void below. Three vehicles jumped off the ship and changed into familiar giant robots, two of them with costumed humans on their shoulders. The pilot of the ship joined the trio along with two others who looked like him.

The third robot was familiar in a bad way. And Hulk and Wasp took that to heart. Both were preparing to attack when Hawkeye and Panther jumped down and held them back.

"Whoa you two. Chainsaw Murder is on our side for now. You don't need to attack him!" Clint said.

"'Chainsaw Murder'?" Knockout repeated indignantly. "It's a BUZZ SAW!"

"Ignore him Knockout. We have more pressing issues." Ant-Man tried to soothe the irate Decepticon.

"Dr. Pym is correct. The Light Elf Faradei informed us that Thor's half-brother Loki is attempting to conquer each of the nine realms, although I suspect we stalled his plans on Earth." Panther said.

Wasp flew up to the Wakandan. "Wait. So the Masters of Evil work for Loki?"

"No. The Enchantress. We must assume she is carrying out Loki's orders, and was simply using the Masters to further his plans."

A snort of disgust came from Sif, who had been tending to the wounded Valkyrie with the other Asgardians. "Amorra the Enchantress. I should have known that witch would be involved in this. I will enjoy making her pay." She turned to her comrades. "Come Warriors Three. Let us teach Loki and his lackeys the error of their ways."

Smokescreen changed back into a racecar and parked himself right in front of her. "Whoa. Whoa, whoa. We aren't just gonna sit on the sidelines here, lady."

"Loki has somehow tapped into the Odin Force itself. He is too powerful for any mortal, or machine, to face." Sif argued.

"The kid's right. Thor is our team mate too, Sif. We do this together, or not at all." Ant-Man played the voice of diplomacy again.

Hawkeye jerked and seemed struck by something. "Hey, speaking of together, has anyone seen Cap? Or Iron Man?"

"And Optimus and the Doc?" Bulkhead added.


	10. Chapter 10: Help from the Other Side

**Autobots, Assemble!**

Chapter 10

Cap gripped the shield and put it on his arm again, still unsure whether to trust the giant white Cybertronian. The other specters watched him along with the mechanical beasts. One of the mechanical dragons seemed highly intrigued about him and was making soft screeching noises and cocking its head this way and that. Megatron remained where he was, seemingly frozen in place, not making a single move to attack his rival. There was an emotion in his red optics that the soldier wasn't expecting to see from a cold blooded war monger: Fear. Whoever this titan was, Megatron was more afraid of it than even he was. That was either really good or really bad. The Star Saber still hovered, untouched, near the throne, forgotten by the woman when she'd fled.

The titan waved a hand and a portal appeared, showing the Avengers and the Autobots, along with a few armored Asgardians, even Knockout, and then faded out of existence, but not before giving the soldier a friendly smile.

"Um…who was that?"

The two twins grinned at him. "Think about it."

They gave him a few moments to connect the dots. The glyphs, they were clearly alien, but also not Kree-he knew what Kree writing looked like thanks to Captain Mar-Vel, whom the Avengers had encountered a while back, and the giant was a Cybertronian, not a Kree (obviously); the gold eyes left the biggest mark-they were old, unspeakably old. Old and friendly and patient, filled with billions of years of knowledge, and maybe a little like Optimus's.

"…No way." He gasped.

"Theeeere ya go." The twins' grins got even bigger. "Yep, that was Primus."

Cap face-palmed in spite of himself-a little habit he'd picked up from Tony. "I attacked a giant alien god. Great. Just great." A thought struck him. "Wait, why didn't he blast me? He certainly had the reason and chance to, but he didn't. Why?"

"Could I get a word in without you two interrupting?" A maroon colored mech with a British accent asked the twins.

"Don't use any big words on him, Perceptor." They joked.

The maroon mech, Perceptor, scowled at them. "Bloody nuisances…" He muttered. Perceptor turned to the human. "Anyway, the reason he didn't attack you was because your attack _wasn't out of direct aggression_. It was based on _uncertainty and caution_, and, I mean no offense when I say this, possibly a little fear as well."

The super soldier allowed himself a wry smile. "No offense taken, because I actually was."

"Look, this is all very cozy and matey and fun, and we can play '20 Questions' all ye like, but yer teams need their leadership back." Another mech, with jet wings on his back and an Australian accent, butted in abruptly.

"Jetfire's got a point. The two teams need their leaders back. They're gettin' worried." Ironhide agreed. "That goes for you too, bucket head! You wanna survive this, you're gonna have ta help out." He added, tossing the remark to Megatron.

Megatron snarled but didn't try to argue, which was rather surprising.

What sounded like a combination between the sound of a conch horn and a bugle could be heard faintly. The portal suddenly trembled due to some sort of disturbance on the other end. Each Autobot, Avenger, Asgardian, and single blood red Decepticon tensed as the ground visibly shook. A colossal, vague form could just be seen in the distance, covering the distance between it and the fighters rapidly due to its immense size.

"More giants?" He heard Wasp whisper.

"No." Hulk grunted. "Feels bigger."

With a few more ground-shaking steps, the form came into full view. Ant-Man and Bumblebee were in front of everyone else, and the pacifist size changer's eyes went wide on seeing the creature.

It was wolf. A ridiculously big wolf, with ice blue fur, razor sharp claws over 3 feet long, and vicious, hungry, yellow eyes. The wolf dwarfed even the Autobots in sheer size.

Hulk glanced over at Wasp. "Told ya."

The wolf growled and lunged forward, the air temperature around it dropping drastically. A blast of icy air shot out of its mouth and the fighters scattered to avoid it.

"How are they supposed to fight that thing?! It's huge!" Cap cried.

"I think it is high time we return and assist them, Captain." Optimus reasoned. "But with an enemy of that size, mere numbers will not defeat it."

"Oh yeah? Says who?" The blue, black, and white mech who had winked at him earlier, argued. "You guys are gonna need all the help ya can get. Creepy Lady's no longer holdin' us here, so we can join in the party, no prob."

"Finally, a fight." Another mech, with a deep blue paintjob and orange face, grinned, changing one of his hands into a hammer.

"Might wanna snag the Saber, Prahm. That'll come in handy." Ironhide suggested. "Besides, it rightfully belongs to ya and no one else can actually use it. 'Side from you, anyway."

"A fair point, Ironhide." Optimus agreed, and went over and gripped the giant sword in one hand. It was then that the human could appreciate how big it really was; it was nearly as long as the Prime was tall! The sword reacted to the Autobot leader's touch and the blade flared to life, glowing a brilliant, crystal blue, the same color as the symbols that had covered Primus's frame. More still, the Prime's optics also reacted, shining a few shades brighter than normal.

"Have you any advice on how to defeat the creature, aside from simply overwhelming it with numbers?" He finally asked.

A dark green mech with a friendly, jovial face stepped forward. "For starters: Wolves have extremely sensitive hearing. I recommend taking, Jazz, Blaster, and Thundercracker with you, since they'll be the most useful in that regard."

Perceptor added in: "Also, its huge mass and size can be considered a strength _and_ a weakness. If you can manage to dislodge even one of its legs, its own weight will topple it, though personally I would advise dislodging two legs, just to be safe. So take Breakdown as well."

The four specters who would accompany them lined up. Jazz was apparently the one who had winked at him, Breakdown was the one with the orange face, Thundercracker was a jet-bot like Jetfire, and Blaster was a red, orange, and black mech with features similar to Jazz.

Friendly, robotic, alien ghosts. Tony was gonna love this.

OoooooooooooooooooooOoooooooooooooooo

The giant wolf, that, according to Sif was named Hoarfin, had already managed to take out Ant-Man and Bumblebee, who lay dazed on the ground after having been stomped on by one its gigantic paws. Hawkeye and Faradei had tried to stick a few arrows in its hide, but it was too thick for the arrows to penetrate and the two archers were forced to flee for the moment. The other Cybertronians were having any better luck; Arcee and Bulkhead were both coated in a thin layer of ice, Knockout was flat out panicking, and Smokescreen had somehow managed to hide _inside_ a wall by passing right through it.

Hawkeye decided to ask the kid about that later. Because, frankly, that he was capable of doing that was downright _awesome_. Autobots with super powers? Coolest thing ever. But back to the issue at hand….

Hoarfin was just about to lunge again and freeze him, Sif, Hulk, and Wasp into ice cubes when something flew at the wolf from behind them, spinning fast enough to act as a saw blade, slicing open a huge gash in the wolf's nose. Hoarfin howled in pain and looked behind his former targets to find the new one.

"HEY FIDO!" a familiar voice taunted. Everyone whipped around the see the man who had just saved their sorry hides.

"Hah! It's the old man!" Hawkeye cheered. Smokescreen poked his head out of his hiding place to see what the fuss was about, and on seeing who it was, joined in the cheering.

Cap ignored them; not out of hate or anything, but he was more focused on keeping the giant angry wolf's attention on himself rather than his team.

So that it didn't see what was coming at it from the air…or behind it.

"_Fetch._" He pointed behind the wolf.

A bright blue energy wave freight trained through the air. By the time the wolf had finished turning to see, it was right in front of it. With a sickening _Crrrraaaack!_ Hoarfin's jaw shattered from the impact. Dark blue blood dripped out of its mouth and the wolf howled again.

"Thundercracker, go!" Optimus ordered.

A transparent navy blue jet rocketed down from the air. Right as it got next the one of the wolf's huge ears, it broke the sound barrier, generating an ear-drum shattering _Ka-BOOOM. _The jet repeated this over and over again, switching from ear to ear as the wolf went nuts.

"Jazz, Blaster, help him out!" Cap shouted.

"You got it, yo!"

A pair of different colored, transparent Porsche's, one white with blue and black detailing, the other a bright, cheery red with black detailing, shot between Hoarfin's paws, cranking up their subwoofers and blasting out notes too low for a human to hear, but not a canine. With Hoarfin now more focused on the ghosts, the others could now take its legs out.

"Bulkhead, Breakdown, Hulk, pick a leg and take it down! Smokescreen, get out of the wall and help Ant-Man and Bumblebee! Knockout, time to put that buzz saw to good use! Wasp, Hawkeye, Panther, go for the eyes! Optimus and I'll help out Arcee! Let's move!" Cap barked out the game plan.

As everyone moved into position, a gunmetal grey Cybertronian fighter jet roared over Hoarfin's back and unleashed a volley of energy shots across the wolf's back, causing the wolf to snarl and snap at the jet. Megatron was far too agile and Hoarfin merely ended up snapping at thin air.

"Wait, is Megatron actually helping us or am I hallucinating?" Wasp wondered.

"He is. Once this is over, he goes back to being an enemy." Cap clarified before running over to help get the ice off of Arcee.

"Fine by me." Hawkeye said "You ready, Faradei?"

The Light Elf grinned, "I am always ready, archer." and readied his bow. On an invisible signal, each fighter let loose a single arrow which buried itself in the skin under Hoarfin's eyes. Wasp flew over and zapped the arrows, shocking the giant wolf and causing it to scream in pain, and Panther threw a barrage of vibranium arrow heads for good measure. Bulkhead and Hulk went after one leg while Breakdown went for the other. But alone, the spectral ex-Con wasn't strong enough to take down the leg.

Knockout took the hint and assisted the mech. From his position, however, he was unable to see the mech's face. So it came as a shock to see his dead assistant helping take down a giant wolf.

"Take it down!" Optimus thundered.

Each heavy hitter (the exception being Knockout) pushed on their chosen legs, shoving them out from under Hoarfin. The wolf stumbled forward and crashed into the main palace, creating a gaping hole in the wall.

The fighters walked in as the dust settled. A man in green and gold armor, black hair tied in a ponytail, a horned helmet, and wielding a brass colored trident with a gem in the middle prong waited for them. Thor was shackled to the floor, Mjolnir just out of his reach and contained in a weird light bubble.

"Give up, tiny." Knockout hissed.

The ponytailed man laughed unrestrainedly. He sounded off his head. A black cloud shimmered into existence around his feet and grew bigger and taller by the second, forming into a giant shadowy form. What formed from the black cloud was something right out of a nightmare; A colossal Cybertronian with pitch black armor, glowing purple eyes, a gun as one hand and a spiked club as another, towered above them. The black titan looked around at the fighters, noticed Optimus, and narrowed its purple eyes at him.

"You…_You're supposed to be dead!"_ It screamed.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Unicron." Arcee said. "But Primes don't go down that easy."

"That's Unicron?!" Wasp and Hawkeye exclaimed. "How the heck are we supposed to beat a giant evil robot god?!"

A blast of lightning struck Unicron in the chest hard enough to bore a hole through his armor. It wasn't Thor – he was still chained up on the floor, and his hammer was well out of his reach – so who had done that?

"Mind if I crash the party, freakshow?" Iron Man taunted.

"Don't you mean 'we', Mr. Stark?" An amber and white ambulance tore into the throne room mere seconds after Iron Man, braking hard and changing into the Autobot medic.

.


End file.
